Page:Bird Haunts and Nature Memories - Thomas Coward (Warne, 1922).pdf/25

Rh repair, after the decay of the monastic buildings, as a useful watch-tower or look-out. The ruins of a small cottage, close to the tower, are not of great antiquity, but hard by are curious narrow tunnels, evidently part of a former and very ancient building. A little way from the tower are low, broken stone walls, which probably mark the site of the conventual gardens; near the landing place are other enclosures, where, in a hollow, a few stunted thorns and brambles "shrink landward from the scathing storm."

Towards Anglesey, from the southern extremity of the island, a spit of sand stretches half-way across the narrow channel; a perch at the point warns the navigator of the dangerous shoal. South of the perch is an ancient causeway, uncovered at low water; pilgrims, it is said, crossed the Lavan Sands, and by means of this causeway overcame the obstacle of the last gutter. Now it would be difficult to walk from Llanfairfechan; there is a deep channel between the Dutchman's Bank and the causeway. Seiriol flourished in the sixth century, but little is known about him; he appears to have been related to a Prince of Lleyn, and by him to have been made chief of a priestly sect at Penman. Tradition tells that even the Vikings came to the holy man for instruction, but it is far more likely that the warlike priests kept watch and guard at Penmon, and that such foreigners who were captured or wrecked upon the coast were instructed in hard labour for the benefit of the community. It was when he wished to retire from public life that he crossed to Priestholm, and there he died and was buried.

Pennant, Bingley, and other writers at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, describe Puffin Island as being thickly populated with puffins, but there is a general idea that for a time the place was forsaken. It is said that they were driven away by