To avoid confusion over the island to which I refer, I am calling it Cross Island which relates to a distant time before conventional lighthouses, and because of other connotations. The island’s situation and height have always made it noticeable to all shipping coming up and down the seaways and it is expected to have a continuing importance, apart from that to birds, seals and otters who anyway were there first. It is likely that the stone age people some thousands of years BC visited the place if they did not stay on it. They occupied Larne, Magheramourne, Kilroot, and farther up the Antrim coast in various suitable localities and set up settlements. The islands have been known by various names; Hellayne Harrons (Arran Islands), Inis Lochlin (Island of Northmen), and on Medieval maps were referred to as Copman’s Isles – Copeland meant “Merchant Haven” and so they were called the Merchant Isles. The main island was then called Neddrum, or Big Isle, or Main Isle. Mew Island has been called Maw Island or Goose Island. Mew was so called by the number of mews (Common Gulls) on it. Cross (or Crosse) Island has variously been called Lighthouse Island, Middle Island and John’s Island. Though it still is used, it is not certain how this latter name arose. He may have been some very holy local hermit who there resided and is so remembered, or it may have been named after one of the St Johns of the Bible.
The seaways between Ireland and Britain have always been much used, and the craft most in use was the curragh, a frame and skin boat even now extant in western Ireland. It is light, seaworthy and portable, and no doubt well used until the advent of the conventional wooden vessels of later times. Such a craft would be ideal for landing on Cross Island and was no doubt so used. Cross got its name from the large cross which obviously showed there, probably with the dual function of landmark and religious indicator, as well as the ancient magic use of protecting the church from the devil and evil spirits. Another name for the island was Laune which is said to mean a church. The cross may have had a different meaning from more ancient times for it was not peculiar to Christianity (see Epilogue). In addition seeing the vestiges of building remains on places like Muck Island, Ballygally, Garron, and so on up to Dunluce, it is likely that Cross Island was part of various schemes to defeat the enemy whoever that might then be, from the days of the logs, skin boats, wood, iron until the present mechanical noisy agitations of plastic and allied substances.
County Down was part of historical Ulster, Uliad, with a tribe called Dal Fiatach in control of it. They were anciently in dispute with another tribe, the Dal Riata, who controlled County Antrim, and the tribes used to travel by sea. Their settlements were so arranged that each twenty houses could provide a galley crew; no doubt such were used in the meeting arranged in Islandmagee by the overall chief or king, Baetan; that was about AD 574, in nominally a Christian land, for St Patrick had passed this way.
As a point of interest there is according to folklore, enmity between the Antrim and Down people which lingers on among the older people, though now with much humour and wit about it.
High headlands and islands on the seaways have always been important to maritime nations since the earliest times when most movements of people were by the sea, and useful to pirates and the other plundering hoodlums who have plagued the coasts so much over the years. After the monastry at Bangor was founded by Comgall (I think he came from Magheramourne) there was traffic to and from Iona, starting from 555 or 559, to visit St Columkille. There must have been shipwrecks and many lives lost during those times, and I am sure that the Cross that marked the way home to Bangor was a welcome sight to the maritime travellers. It may have been, as well as all else, a fort to keep a lookout and protect the approaches; I find these all over the Western Isles.
The Norse moved in from 794 to 1100, plundering Rathlin, Strangford, Bangor, and Olderfleet (Larne). To maintain local subjection they kept a fleet in Strangford. It is likely that Cross Islandwas part of the set up, taken no doubt with the sack and plunder of the religious houses from 824 onward. With the departure of the marauders the site no doubt was returned to the monastery at Bangor and its holy role restored again.
The island has long been associated with pilotage. Pilots waited on the island to board ships going into the lough. In 1573 the Earl of Essex was made the new governor. On his way to Carrickfergus from Liverpool, he had a very rough time getting across and the ship made a landfall at Copeland. His ship was not able to proceed farther so he was conveyed to Carrickfergus by pinnace, an oar and sail craft, maybe manned by the pilots of the day. He arrived safely; after all, the mayor of Carrickfergus was vice admiral of all the local seas from Fair Head southwards.
The island belonged to the Abbey in Bangor until 1612 when it became the property of Sir James Hamilton. It has always been on a trading route, for until 1667 Irish beef was shipped on the hoof from Donaghadee to Portpatrick to the drove roads south through Glenluce, Newton Stewart, Dumfries and Carlisle on to Smithfield, London. This trade was officially stopped in 1667 by very heavy pressure from rival groups, but smuggling took its place. There was a let up in 1765 and the trade continued again. What the role of the island was in those days I do not know, though it was likely used in some capacity.
There was a lighthouse of sorts on Blackhead in 1683, so there was likely something of the kind on Cross Island marking the hazard to shipping that the group of islands are, as well as the pilotage enterprise, if it was then operating from the island. In the early years of the 17th century, the local ‘folklorists’ linked the island with ‘wrecking’ as an occupation in the olden days of the very long ago to dim of date. Wrecking was associated with Cornwall (the Celtic fringe) where whole families in the days before steam ships used various nefarious methods to lure ships to be wrecked on rocky shores, where the crews were killed and the ship plundered. It was an occupation for poor sea edge dwellers or pirates far from the centres of authority. Folk tales contain many a truth. From 1796 until 1816, there was a coal beacon in use on the island. This beacon could consume one ton of coal per night, depending on the wind no doubt, and the beacon obviously showed where the light of the fire burned, and would give little information apart. There was a fog bell attached to the site. This coal beacon was probably part of a coast system. There may have been something of the kind on the North Briggs, perhaps on the South Briggs also. When I was small the North Briggs, where there is now a buoy, was called the Pot Feet. I was told this was so called after all that remained of a brazier that used to be there in the past.
In 1815 a lighthouse was built on Cross Island by the Ballast Board, (who at the same time built a lighthouse on Inishtrahull). There was a fog bell attached. It is recorded that a great many larks were killed flying into the light. The Ballast Board seemingly had wide powers, apart from being responsible for the lights. Their employees looked to the lights and were often farmers locally. The Board could prosecute for trespass and damage and were empowered to sentence trespassers to whipping and imprisonment for up to six months.
Cross Island has been inhabited over the years. In 1742 there was a family on it, and in 1811 there were two families on it, about fifteen inhabitants, some employed in looking after the light. In 1801 a ship called the Enterprise was wrecked on the island, sinking with 40,000 pounds in dollars, which was recovered from a diving bell by the famous inventor Mr Bell himself. It may be that this ship is the one that is immortalised along the Antrim coast in the ballad of the name Enterprise, to the extent of 23 tuneful and interesting verses that tell the tale. It is a song sung mainly in Glenarm, and so far as I recall it declares that some of the dead were buried farther up the coast. It likely sank at Copeland and drifted northward with the heavy tides that run the channel. The islands have had their shipwrecks, many long forgotten. In 1846 a Liverpool paddle steamer was wrecked on Mew in a thick fog in July, and maybe that contributed to the decision to move the light. There was a single family on the island in 1875 who looked after the light and there was a small boat harbour. This was probably in the area of the present landing place and the pitched cobble stones may have some relevance to this harbour though they may be much older. The lighthouse was said to have been 70 feet high, with walls seven foot thick, a light that could be seen for six miles, and a fog bell attached.
In 1884 a new light was built on Mew to a height of 120 feet. Then the lighthouse on Cross Island was demolished, and the island ceased to have the importance that it had. For many years it was leased to Robert McConkey for the shooting of rabbits and sea birds; it is said that Robert McConkey’s grandfather introduced the Dutch rabbit to the island. It is also stated that a great many cormorants were shot as being injurious to the local fishing industry. Before the sporting season started stores were ferried out to the island in readiness for the sportsmen who came out weekly. In the season there was the harvesting of the eggs by the commercial egg collectors for market on the mainland, and within memory these have been on sale in the relevant season of the year.
Local tradition says that fishermen in the past did not come home at night if they did not have the quota of fish to supply the demend ashore. So they stayed overnight on the island and started fishing with the dawn to get enough fish to suit the need, before going into Donaghadee or Bangor. The tragedy of those days was that as they were often out overnight, no search was made until sometime later when they might be considered missing; so a crew could be lost for days before authorities were alerted to the fact.
One day in 1909 when Cross Island was used to pasture sheep, a keeper from Mew brought his grandson ashore from Cross Island in a yoal in which they brought four sheep suitably tied so that they would be secure on the way. It was in a southeasterly blow with three reefs down and neither mizzen or forsail up when they came tearing into Donaghadee to the delight of the locals and holiday makers. The yoals of those days were incredible little vessels.
During the 1914 – 1918 war it was forbidden to land on any of the islands, I was told. The same applied for many years following unless special permission was obtained.
Gradually the island came to be used again by fishermen. The law allows fishermen to come ashore and use beaches and land in the furtherance of legal fishing. Trappers culled the rabbits from all the islands, and the egg collecting went on. The main islanders caught and dried fish on racks and on cottage roofs for winter use. Cattle will actually eat fish or seaweeds without coaxing. From 1939 onward it was a restricted area and contained a radar reflector, so the Cross Island was still in coastal business on the occasions of defence now in a much more sophisticated age. Its role had altered a little. The last invasion was a peaceful one, by the tribe of Ornithology, a serious looking people who study the original travellers on their coastal migrations – the little brown birds and other creatures.
Where a cross shaped building is set on a circular site, the resultant wheel cross is a sun symbol – the island may have been a place for sun worship; it still is on a sunny day – and the sign we use frequently nowadays is ?, not quite the wheel cross, for the female of the species of any bird!
| © Copeland Bird Observatory, 2001 – 2004 |