It is now managed by the Landmark Trust, a conservation charity that derives its income from day trips and holiday lettings, most visitors arriving by boat from Bideford or Ilfracombe.

As a steep, rocky island, often shrouded by fog, Lundy has been the scene of many shipwrecks, and the remains of its old lighthouse installations are of both historic and scientific interest.

There are surviving examples in Luxulyan, in Cornwall; Mathry, Meidrim and Clydau in the south of Wales; and Stowford, Jacobstowe, Lydford and Instow, in Devon.

The Templars were a major international maritime force at this time, with interests in North Devon, and almost certainly an important port at Bideford or on the River Taw in Barnstaple.

Ships were forced to navigate close to Lundy because of the dangerous shingle banks in the fast flowing River Severn and Bristol Channel, with its tidal range of 27 feet (8.2 metres),[29][30] one of the greatest in the world.

[31][32] This made the island a profitable location from which to prey on passing Bristol-bound merchant ships bringing back valuable goods from overseas.

[34][35][36][37] From 1628 to 1634, in addition to the Barbary Pirates, the island was plagued by privateers of French, Basque, English and Spanish origin targeting the lucrative shipping routes passing through the Bristol Channel.

[38] In the English Civil War, Thomas Bushell held Lundy for King Charles I, rebuilding Marisco Castle and garrisoning the island at his own expense.

[40] The late 18th and early 19th centuries were years of lawlessness on Lundy, particularly during the ownership of Thomas Benson (1708–1772), a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1747 and Sheriff of Devon, who notoriously used the island for housing convicts whom he was supposed to be deporting.

Having cleared the port on the mainland, the ship put into Lundy, where the cargo was removed and stored in a cave built by the convicts, before setting sail again.

[41] Sir Vere Hunt, 1st Baronet of Curragh, a rather eccentric Irish politician and landowner, and unsuccessful man of business, purchased the island from John Cleveland in 1802 for £5,270.

[40] Many of the buildings on the island, including St. Helen's Church, designed by the architect John Norton, and Millcombe House (originally known simply as "the Villa"), date from the Heaven period.

[43] However, the expense of building the road from the beach (no financial assistance being provided by Trinity House, despite their frequent use of the road following the construction of the lighthouses), maintaining the villa, and the general cost of running the island had a ruinous effect on the family's finances, which had been diminished by reduced profits from their sugar plantations, rum production, and livestock rearing in Jamaica.

It is one of five life-sized sculptures, Land, placed near the centre and at four compass points of the UK in a commission by the Landmark Trust, to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

[63] Steaming in heavy fog, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Montagu ran hard aground near Shutter Rock on Lundy's southwest corner at about 2:00 a.m. on 30 May 1906.

[64] Thinking they were aground at Hartland Point on the English mainland, a landing party went ashore for help, only finding out where they were after encountering the lighthouse keeper at the island's north light.

[65] Strenuous efforts by the Royal Navy to salvage the badly damaged battleship during the summer of 1906 failed, and in 1907 it was decided to give up and sell her for scrap.

[74][75] The island is primarily composed of granite of 59.8 ± 0.4 – 58.4 ± 0.4 million years[76] (from the Palaeocene epoch), with slate at the southern end; the plateau soil is mainly loam, with some peat.

[76][78][full citation needed] It is possible, based on emplacement of magmas of the basalt, trachyte and rhyolite types at a high levels in Earth's crust, that a volcano system existed above Lundy.

Large numbers of black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) nest on the cliffs, as do razorbill (Alca torda), common guillemot (Uria aalge), European herring gull (Larus argentatus), lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus), northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), Eurasian oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), Eurasian skylark (Alauda arvensis), meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis), common blackbird (Turdus merula), European robin (Erithacus rubecula), and linnet (Carduelis cannabina).

[96] Other mammals which have made the island their home include the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) and the Eurasian pygmy shrew (Sorex minutus).

[97] In 1971, a proposal was made by the Lundy Field Society to establish a marine reserve, and the survey was led by Dr Keith Hiscock, supported by a team of students from Bangor University.

[98] In 2003, the first statutory No Take Zone (NTZ) for marine nature conservation in the UK was set up in the waters to the east of Lundy island.

[99] In 2008, this was declared as having been successful in several ways including the increasing size and number of lobsters within the reserve, and potential benefits for other marine wildlife.

In the summer months (April to October) visitors are carried on the Landmark Trust's own vessel, MS Oldenburg, which sails from both Bideford and Ilfracombe.

[108] In 2007, Derek Green, Lundy's general manager, launched an appeal to raise £250,000 to save the 1-mile-long (1.5-kilometre) Beach Road, which had been damaged by heavy rain and high seas.

The road was built in the first half of the 19th century to provide people and goods with safe access to the top of the island, 120 m (394 ft) above the only jetty.

[111][112] There is a small power station comprising three Cummins B and C series diesel engines, offering an approximately 150 kVA 3-phase supply to most of the island buildings.

Labbe's Guide is considered the gold standard of Lundy catalogues owing to its extensive approach to varieties, errors, specialised items, and "fantasy" issues.

This is also the home of the Landmark Trust Lundy Island Philatelic Archive which includes artwork, texts and essays as well as postmarking devices and issued stamps.