Bishops and Clerks

The islands are named as the Bisshoppis and his clerkis in the manuscript Sailing Directions for the Circumnavigation of England which dates from the middle fifteenth century or earlier.

[2] An ecclesiastical link is supported by the Pembrokeshire antiquarian George Owen: A seeboard this Iland Ramsey rangeth in order the Bushop and his clearkes being vijen in Nomber, all wayes seene at lowe water who are not wthout 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 4th emskir, the rest as yet I haue not learned their names if they have anye...

From the north these are: 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.

[5] 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.