Lafonia

Shaped like the letter "E", it is joined to the northern part of the island by an isthmus that is almost 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) wide.

The geology of north west Lafonia is Permian, and similar to that of parts of Ecca Pass in South Africa.

In 1845, Mr Samuel Fisher Lafone, a British-born wealthy cattle and hide merchant on the river Plate, obtained from government a grant of the southern portion of the East Falkland, which was a peninsula 600,000 acres (2,400 km2) in extent, and possession of all the wild cattle on the island for a period of six years, for a payment of £10,000 down, and £20,000 in ten years from January 1, 1852.

In 1851, Mr Lafone's interest in Lafonia, as the peninsula came to be called, was purchased for £30,000 by the Falkland Islands Company, which had been incorporated by charter in the same year.

It is run from Darwin (founded 1859) and Goose Green, both of which are located on the narrow isthmus that separates Lafonia from the rest of East Falkland.

Location of Lafonia within the Falkland Islands.
Location of Lafonia within the Falkland Islands.
Map of the Falkland Islands.
Falkland gauchos having mate at Hope Place - Saladero, East Falkland . Watercolour by Dale, manager of Hope Place in the 1850s.