Stunning island off Cornwall where legend claims Jesus visited

There’s a small island just a mile off the coast of Cornwall with a rich and varied history – and it’s amazing. It was a place of pilgrimage, a smuggling hot spot and, according to legend, was even visited by Jesus Christ as a child.

The story goes that Jesus came to Looe Island with his uncle Joseph of Arimathea to trade for Cornish tin. The beautiful island is believed to have been the tin trading center of Ictis, as described by Diodorus Siculus in Bibliotheca historica.

There are several British islands that claim to be Ictis, including Mount St Michael in Cornwall, the Mount Batten peninsula in Devon and the Isle of Wight. Although there is no concrete evidence that Jesus ever visited Ictis, or that the island of Looe was indeed Ictis, we do know that the Phoenician tin trade took place in Cornwall.

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As the legend of Jesus’ visit to Cornwall spread, the island of Looe, then known as St. Michael’s Island, became a popular place of pilgrimage. This continued until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, reports the Mirror.

After this, the island was renamed St. George’s Island and began to attract a different kind of visitor. It became a smuggling hub, with contraband goods arriving on the island before being transported to the mainland.

The island was privately owned by the Trewlaney family from 1743, before later passing to Henry St. John Dix in 1912 and then to sisters Evelyn and Roselyn in 1965.

After Roselyn’s death in 2004, she bequeathed the island to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, who now manage it as a nature reserve.

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