- Lundy is a huge rock of granite
just over 3 miles long, and about mile broad, with cliffs rising
almost perpendicularly from the sea to a height of from 400 to
500 feet. The total area is 1,044 acres. The present owner is
Mr. M. C. Harman, who purchased the property in 1925.
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- The soil is light, and only a
small part of the island is under cultivation, but about a
quarter of the area is permanent pasture, sheep and cattle being
reared, while the rest is moorland. Lobsters are caught in large
quantities.
- Fresh water is supplied in
abundance by the springs. Snow and ice are practically unknown.
- Botanically Lundy is of great
interest, wild flowers growing in great number and variety.
- Brassicella Wrightii, named after its discoverer, Dr. Elliston
Wright of Braunton, is a plant found nowhere else in the world,
and it is supposed to be the ancestor of all the brassicella
(cabbage) on the mainland.
The fauna, too, is remarkable.
- Rat Island, an island of about
an acre situated off the southeast point, was for many years one
of the few remaining strongholds of the black rat, and is also
the home of trapdoor spiders, found nowhere else in or round the
United Kingdom.
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- Rabbits are believed to have been introduced to
England from Lundy, the first documentary reference dating from
about AD1200. Ponies of an excellent type are numerous, and also
red, Japanese and fallow deer, and wild goats. Seals breed on
and are frequently seen in great numbers near Lundy, and one
small cove is known as the Seals’ Hole. The birds, past and
present, are intensely interesting. The late Major C. Noel
Clarke, who carried out extensive research into the history of
the Great Auk, stated that Lundy was its last authoritative
breeding place (1841).
- The proprietor has instituted
very strict measures to preserve the many rare birds which nest
in the island at the present time, the peregrine falcon,
cormorant, puffin and oyster-catcher, regarded as rarities in
other parts of the British Isles, being common on Lundy. There
are no snakes, frogs or toads on the island, tradition crediting
St. Patrick with having stayed there en route for Ireland.
- In a cliff at the south-west
corner there is a curious funnel-shaped cavity, about 370 feet
deep, called the Devil’s Lime Kiln, at the bottom of which are
two small passages leading to the sea. Close at hand is a huge
conical-shaped rock called Shutter Rock, near which the
battleship Montagu. practically a new vessel, was wrecked in
1906, a loss to the country of nearly £2,000,000. The rock is
referred to in Westward Ho!
- Lying off the north end of Lundy is
a cluster of rocks called the Hen and Chickens. Vessels give
these a wide berth.
- In the same neighborhood, but on the
island, is the Constable Rook. On the east side is the Templar
Rock, which bears a marvelous resemblance to the human face.
