The Oldenburg’s sailing schedule generally allows day-visitors about four hours on Lundy – time enough to explore the diversity of the South End of the Island.
If your interest is in Lundy’s buildings and monuments there are three distinct areas worth visiting:
Firstly there’s the Village itself dominated by its magnificent Victorian church, dedicated to St Helen. The 13th century castle, overlooking the sea, is a short walk and within the Village the Shop and the Tavern, as well as being useful, have their own histories.
Heading for the West Side the obvious building of interest is the Old Light, built in 1819 by Trinity House and the highest lighthouse in the UK. Next to it is a small cemetery, particularly notable for four inscribed Christian grave markers dating between AD 500 and AD 700. Further up the coast are the fascinating remains of a Fog Signal Battery, halfway down the cliff facing out onto the Atlantic.
The sheltered East Side contrasts sharply to the ruggedness of the West. The lower coastal path leads to the quarries of the short-lived Lundy Granite Company. Between 1863 and 1868 this employed about three hundred men, resulting in major additions to the Island infrastructure.
The quarries, and their associated buildings, are considered one of the best extant examples of Victorian industrial workings in the UK.