[citation needed] With few trees to use for timber, most of the farms and barns are built with masts recovered from shipwrecks.

Terschelling is well known for the yearly Oerol Festival during which theatre performances are played throughout the island, making use of its landscape and nature.

Terschelling can be reached by ferry from the mainland Frisian town Harlingen and in summer from Vlieland by high-speed catamaran.

The last appearance of the name Wexalia is in a treaty between Folkerus Reijner Popma, then ruler of Terschelling, with king Edward IV of England in 1482.

The oldest traces of civilization on Terschelling date from around 850, when a small wooden church was built on a hill near Seeryp or Stryp (Striep).

The next year, in 1667, the Dutch under command of De Ruyter executed a retaliatory expedition, and dealt the English navy a heavy blow at the Raid on the Medway (also known as the Battle of Chatham), in effect ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

A beaker made from a silver bar is displayed in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

Her bell was recovered and is now in the headquarters of Lloyd's of London, where it is tolled before announcing important news.