Lundy

Lundy (Scand., 'grove island'), a granitic island of Devonshire, in the mouth of the Bristol Channel, 11¾ miles NNW. of Hartland Point, 17 NW. of Clovelly, 24 W. of Ilfracombe, and 30 SSE. of St Gowan's Head in Wales. It measures 3½ miles by 1; has rocky and precipitous shores, with only one landing-place on the south side; and attains an altitude of 525 feet. Here, near the southern end of the island, is a lighthouse, built in 1820. The cliffs are the resort of multitudes of sea-fowl. The antiquities include prehistoric kists, remains of round towers and a chapel, and the ruined castle of the Mariscoes (11th to 14th centuries), from whose time on into the 17th century Lundy was a stronghold successively of pirates, buccaneers, privateers, and smugglers. It figures in Kingsley's Westward Ho!; was the death-place of 'Judas' Stukely; was garrisoned till 1647 for Charles I.; and in 1834 was purchased for £9870 by the Heaven family. Pop. (1851) 34; (1881) 177; (1891) 53. See Chanter's Lundy Island (1877).