Lundy Island

Early Christian Gravestones  'These stone allude to British Christian dead, were erected by British, were an aspect of continuous British Christianity."  "The four inscribed stones alone make it (Lundy) archaeologically unique" ...read more

Kistvaen    On Lundy in 1851 a barrow, the kistvaen, was discovered by workmen and opened up. Soon after, it was visited by a Mr Gosse who gave the following description; - " A block of granite was found a little below the surface.......read more

The Punchbowl   'The widespread Celtic faith in the magical powers contained in white quartz and rock crystal appears to extend at least as far back in time as the early bronze age, beliefs still held by people today. The presence of white quartz in Celtic sacred wells is so widespread as to prove that this rock was deemed worthy of giving as a votive offering to the gods. ...read more

Beacon Alignments   The island of Lundy was the centre of a network of signal beacons covering the southwest of Britain; Devon and Cornwall and the south of Wales as from the Brecon Beacons and the Preseli mountains....read more

Derivation of Lundy   the old norse word 'lundr' is the root word for the modern 'lund' 'lunt' and '-land'. The meaning is ' grove' 'copse' 'sacred grove' and the old eng '...ëg'  'island ...read more

Ecclesiastical History of Lundy  'J. R. Chanter, our best authority, in his monograph 'Lundy Island', speaks of its ecclesiastical position as 'anomalous, it being not only extra-parochial, but extra-diocesan as it seems, having been left pretty much to itself since the suppression of monasteries. When attached to the Manor and Abbey of Hartland the spiritual duties were no doubt attended to by the monks of that abbey. At a subsequent period it appears to have become a distinct parish, with a church dedicated to St. Helena, and having attached to it an oratory dedicated to St.Ann.' ....read more

Island of Hercules The earliest known direct written mention of Lundy comes from the second century geographer, Ptolemy. He calls Lundy;- 'Heraclea' - 'Isle of Hercules.' He also names Hartland Point, the nearest point of land to Lundy;- 'Heracles Promontory' - 'The Headland of Hercules.' ...read more

Giant's Graves   During harvest time in 1851 islanders on Lundy discovered two immense granite coffins, one of them said to have been ten feet long the other eight. When these sarcophagi were opened, the excavators found the skeletons of two eight feet tall humans....read more

Towers on Lundy   Irish and Welsh legends contain numerous instances of  towers on  islands, the 'Tower of Bre?', the tower of Arianrhod, the tower under which the head of Bran is buried. Is there any evidence on Lundy for the existence of such a tower on Lundy? ....read more

The old name for Lundy - 'Ynys Wair' - Gwair's Island.  Gwair is a Celtic - Sun God. 'The noted 19th century authority, Professor Rhys, was among the first to identify the imprisonment of Gwair on the Isle of Lundy, with the Paphlagonian (Greek) myth of the binding of Chronus on a western isle. He also points out that Classical legend is the original source of the basic myth of the god imprisoned on a western isle traceable through the Arthurian Romances....read more

Luned names    The tale of 'Owain and the Lady of the Fountain' appears in the Mabinogion a collection of welsh prose tales put together between the latter part of the 11th and the end of the 13th centuries....read more

Lundy Island and the Knights Templar   Lundy Island has two indisputable links to the Knights Templar. One past, one present. Firstly, the Templars owned Lundy in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and, secondly, on the eastern side of Lundy Island, where it faces the rising sun, there is a rock formation in the shape of a head, known as Knight Templar Rock. ...read more