Farne, Fearn, or Fern Isles

Farne, Fearn, or Fern Isles, or the STAPLES, form a group of seventeen islets and rocks (area, 80 acres; pop. 49 in 1881), some being visible only at low-tide, two to five miles off the north-east coast of Northumberland, opposite Bambrough. On House Island are remains of a Benedictine priory, dedicated to St Cuthbert (q.v.). The passage between the isles is very dangerous in rough weather; and on the group there are two light-houses. Here the Forfarshire was wrecked in 1838 (see DARLING, GRACE); and here, in 1843, the Pegasus met the same fate, when sixty persons were drowned.