Ralegh’s Last Journey

A good passage

‘Judas’ Stucley was now Vice Admiral of a county loyal to Raleigh. His home there, Affeton Castle, could not defend him from his detractors. His aunt, Mary Grenville, took pity on him and persuaded her son Sir Barnard Grenville to offer him sanctuary on their property, Lunfy Island, eleven miles off the coast of north Devon.

The island’s name comes from the Norse, lunde, which means puffin. It is a little plateau of lumpy land, three miles by half a mile, slung between sheer granite cliffs which stand three to four hundred feet above the Bristol Channel. It is inaccessible, except for where, in a small section of Devonian slates at the south-east end, the sea has bitten a small cove, sheltered by tiny Rat Island. A notorious haunt of Algerian and Spanish smugglers and privateers, Queen Elizabeth had once threatened to confiscate the island from the Grenvilles for maladministration; a naval force was sent to cleanse it. Anciently a royal warren, its granite castle of 1244 had been paid for by the sale of rabbits. Sir Lewis Stucley exiled himself there, to live among rabbits, puffins and outlaws.