Bishops and Clerks

There was a local tradition that the name arose from the sixteenth century wreck of a fleet of merchant ships from which there were only three survivors: Miles Bishop, James Clerk and Henry Clerk. However, this derivation is now thought to be unlikely and that the name probably comes from there being a larger island surrounded by smaller islands. Similar names are used for islands in the Isles of Scilly{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=W. A. R. |title=The Smalls, Hats and Barrels: navigational and toponymic hazards |journal=Nomina |date=1994 |volume=17 |pages=74 |url=http://www.snsbi.org.uk/Nomina_articles/Nomina_17_Richardson.pdf |accessdate=4 June 2020}} and for the Bishop and Clerk Islets in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

The islands are named as {{not a typo|the Bisshoppis and his clerkis}} in the manuscript Sailing Directions for the Circumnavigation of England which dates from the middle fifteenth century or earlier. They are named The bisshop and his clarkes in a 1578 map of Pembrokeshire by Christopher Saxton.{{cite web|title= Penbrok comitat |publisher= British Library |url= http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/unvbrit/p/001map00000c7c1u00035000.html |accessdate= 24 August 2019 }}

An ecclesiastical link is supported by the Pembrokeshire antiquarian George Owen:

{{not a typo|{{poemquote|text=A seeboard this Iland Ramsey rangeth in order the Bushop and his clearkes being vij{{sup|en}} in Nomber, all wayes seene at lowe water who are not w{{sup|th}}out some small Quiristers, who shewe not themselves, but at spring tydes, and calm seas,

The chiefest of theis ys called by the inhabitantes the Bushops rocke one other Carreg y rossan, the third Divighe, the 4{{sup|th}} emskir, the rest as yet I haue not learned their names if they have anye... The Bushop and those clerkes preach deadly doctrine to their winter audience...

|author=George Owen of Henllys |source=The Description of Penbrokeshire (1594)}}}}

There are four distinct groups of islets. From the north these are:

• North Bishop (44 metres, 144 feet)
• Carreg Rhoson (44 metres, 144 feet)
• Carreg Rhoson E Island (30 metres, 98 feet)
• Maen Rhoson
• Daufraich
• Maen Daufraich
• Moelyn
• Cribog
• Emsger or South Bishop (37 metres, 121 feet)

In addition, the three small wave-washed rocks of Carreg-trai, Llechau-isaf and Llechau-uchaf sit in the waters between the Bishops and Clerks and Ramsey Island and the Welsh mainland.

File:South Bishop - geograph.org.uk - 9984.jpg on Emsger photographed from Ramsey Island]]

The islands and their neighbouring rocks are dangerous to shipping, and about thirteen shipwrecks are recorded in the waters immediately surrounding the islands, notably North Bishop.{{cite web|title=Seascape Character Area Description No 19: Bishops and Clerks |publisher=Pembrokeshire Coast National Park |date=December 2013 |url=http://www.pembrokeshirecoast.org.uk/files/files/Dev%20Plans/AdoptedSPG/SCA19%20%20Bishop%20and%20Clerks.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234112/http://www.pembrokeshirecoast.org.uk/files/files/Dev%20Plans/AdoptedSPG/SCA19%20%20Bishop%20and%20Clerks.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016}} The South Bishop Lighthouse was built on Emsger (South Bishop) in 1939.{{Coflein|num=126319 |desc=South Bishop Lighthouse|access-date=29 September 2021}}

The two northerly islet groups are formed from gabbro, a hard-wearing rock of igneous origin whilst those of the Daufraich group to their south (and indeed Llechau-isaf) are formed from microtonalite, another intrusive igneous rock. The most southerly, Emsger is formed from rhyolite. All these are of probable lower Palaeozoic origin. Llechau-uchaf is formed from the late Cambrian 'Lingula Flags' whilst Carreg-trai is formed from Ordovician acid tuffs of the Llanrian Volcanic Formation.British Geological Survey 1992 1:50,000 scale provisional geological map sheet 209 (England and Wales) St David's The submarine geology between the main groups is formed by sandstones and mudstones of Cambro-Ordovician age, though the bedrock is partly covered by sand and gravel.

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• [http://www.pembrokeshirebreaks.co.uk/pictures/bishops-and-clerks.php Photograph]

{{Commons category|Bishops and Clerks}}

{{Pembrokeshire}}

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Category:Islands of Pembrokeshire