Читать книгу Excursions in North Wales - John Hicklin - Страница 9

Generally called by the Welsh Yr Ynys Enlli (the Island of the Current), and formerly known as the Island of the Saints, is situated about three leagues to the west of Aberdaron; it is somewhat more than two miles long and one broad, and contains about 370 acres of land, of which near one-third is occupied by a high mountain, affording sustenance only to a few sheep and rabbits. The number of inhabitants does not exceed one hundred, and their chief employment is fishing, there being great abundance round the island. It is the property of Lord Newborough.

On the south-east side, which is only accessible to the mariner, there is a small well sheltered harbour, capable of admitting vessels of 30 or 40 tons burden. The lighthouse was erected in 1821; it is a handsome square tower, 74 feet high, and surmounted by a lantern, 10 feet high.

This island was formerly celebrated for an abbey, a few portions only of which are now remaining. Dubricius, archbishop of Caerlleon, resigned his see to St. David, retired here, and died A.D. 612; he was interred upon the spot, but such was the veneration paid to his memory in after ages, that his remains were removed in the year 1107 to Llandaff, and interred in that cathedral, of which Dubricius had been the first bishop. After the slaughter of the monks of Bangor Is-y-coed, nine hundred persecuted men who had embraced Christianity, sought a sacred refuge in this island, where numbers of the devout had already established a sanctuary, and found repose from the troubles which then raged through the Principality.