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Last month I might have frightened you away from visiting Cornwall, and damaged the local tourist industry in the process. So to maintain a balance, and hopefully encourage you to come to this beautiful county, here’s the story of Cornwall’s very own Atlantis.
Introduction
According to The Saxon Chronicle Lyonesse was obliterated on the 11th November 1099. The chronicle tells of the sea inundating the land and drowning towns, people, and animals. However, that date may be misleading as there are other references to a date of 1089, or even sometime during the 6th Century. But, whatever the date, the myth of a lost land persists, so it might well be a folk memory of dry land that did exist at some point. And geological evidence shows that sea levels were different within human memory.
Today, legend has it that the Isles of Scilly are all that remain of Lyonesse, with the islands having been recorded, during the reign of Maximus in the 4th Century, as one single island. Lyonesse is said to have contained one hundred and forty villages and churches, and local tradition has it that fishermen still find parts of old buildings in their trawling nets. Some even say they’ve heard the church bells ring when the sea has been stormy. There is also a report that an ex-mayor of Wilton, while standing on the cliffs at Land's End, had twice seen domes, towers, spires, and fortifications beneath the sea. And, as recently as the 1930s, a News Chronicle journalist claimed to have been woken by the sound of muffled bells ringing one night. His hosts maintained that he had heard the bells of Lyonesse.
The Seven Stone Rocks are held to be the remains of a city that fishermen call The Town, while in Mount’s Bay the remains of a sunken forest can be seen at low tide. Lending weight to this belief is the fact that St. Michael’s Mount, situated in Mount’s Bay itself, is an old Cornish name meaning " the hoar rock in the wood." Added to this is the locally held idea that the Isles of Scilly are the old hilltops of Lyonesse. And it is a fact that the remains of many ancient stone buildings, including megalithic structures, can be seen below the high-tide mark.
Today, there are roughly fifty islands within the Isles of Scilly group, although only four are inhabited and have been inhabited since prehistoric times. They have also been identified as the famous Tin Islands that were known to the Greeks. Geologically they are made from granite that is very similar to the granite of Cornwall.
History
If you use the search option at this site it will tell you a little about the megalithic remains to be found on the Isles of Scilly:
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/
In an article about Wolves and War mention is made of the Isles of Scilly and Lyonesse. Wolf Rock lies in deep and treacherous water, about half way between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly. The article relates how the Wolf Rock came to be named, and details the history of the lighthouse that now stands guard over this part of the Atlantic. Intriguingly this is one of the few lighthouses to be built directly on the sea floor:
http://www.wolfsongalaska.org/wolvesinwar2.html
Archaeology
In an archaeological model of the Isles of Scilly published by Professor Charles Thomas he states:
"While the Islands have been separated from mainland Britain for many thousands of years, the depth of water between them is so shallow that
Bryher,
Tresco, and
Samson
are still joined at low astronomical tides (LAT) and a fall of only 10 metres would unite them all, except St. Agnes and the Western Rocks. Scilly, therefore, represents a drowned landscape illustrated by the existence of causeways linking the Islands, submerged stone field boundaries and other archaeological sites within the inter-tidal zone of shallow interior sea."
And Dr. B. P. Horton, from Durham University, thinks that:
"The origin of the legend of Lyonesse must, to a certain extent, stem from ancient folk-memories of the Neolithic inundations of areas around the Cornish coast, particularly Mount’s Bay, but more especially from the history of the Isles of Scilly themselves."
You can read more about it at this link, where the author notes that the legend of Lyonesse is similar to that of the Breton story about the drowning of Caer Ys, also known as Ker-Is, in which a king escaped the flood:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/landsendparty/legend_of_lyonesse.htm
There is a fascinating article, at this next site, that takes a close look at ancient catastrophes and those who survived them. It examines the possibility of devastating comet impacts in the ancient past, and gives an alternative history of archaeology and civilization. Here is just one quote from site:
"Did the final inundation of the legandary land of Lyonesse - between the ancient celtic land of Kernow (now Cornwall) and the Isles of Scilly (some 30 miles to the south west of Land's End?) - happen in the mid-sixth century AD? And were the inundations off the western coast of Wales that occurred around the same time just a small part of a much larger catastrophe that affected not just the coastal lands on the so-called Celtic Shelf of northwest Europe, but other areas of the world as well?"
http://www.morien-institute.org/survivors.html
The site also has this map, with text that reads: " a map of global sea levels showing coastlines circa 17,000 B.P. with submerged lands shown in green."
From another part of the same site, the author suggests that Plato’s Atlantis disappeared in 9,600 B.C., around the time that the last Ice Age ended, and that memories of sunken lands are passed down in oral traditions across the world. To again take a quote from the site:
"In his "Atlantis: New Hypothesis", Viatcheslav Koudriavstev provides a link to a map of the Little Sole Bank on the Celtic Shelf. In his accompanying analysis of this map he concludes: "Some paleogeographic reconstructions of Western Europe at the (end) of the last glaciation suggest that there had existed a river originating in the area of the modern Irish Sea, which must have flown into the ocean in approximately this area. And if this is indeed the trace of the ancient river-bed, then the present Little Sole Bank was not an island or merely a hill on the shore, but a hill at the river-mouth, which is a uniquely beneficial position for a city."
This is very interesting, because mentioned in "Branwen, Daughter of Llyr", the second branch of the collection of Welsh folk tales known as "The Mabynogion", in the edition prepared from the 'middle Welsh' by Sir Ifor Williams (Gwasg Dinefwr, Llandybie, Dyfed 1930) there are two rivers described as running between Wales and Ireland."
http://www.morien-institute.org/uwnews1997.html
Geology
In the middle of 1998 Russian scientists were investigating the area below sea level just beyond the Isles of Scilly, known as the Celtic Shelf. They were hoping to find the legendary land of Atlantis. This is not quite so crazy as it sounds, and in a book called The Atlantis of the West, by Paul Dunbavin, he makes a very good case for the British Isles actually having been Plato’s Atlantis.
In February this year, 2004, the BBC reported that scientists from the University of Birmingham had used computer imagery to map a prehistoric 10,000 year old plain that is now submerged beneath the North Sea. Hunters, animals, and plants would have inhabited the area. You can read more about the discovery here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/3489963.stm
It is also interesting to read what the following link says about the geology just after the end of the last Ice Age, and the various flood myths from around the world:
http://www.comparative-religion.com/articles/torah_torah_torah/torah5.php
Asteroid Impact
In an article by Andrew Rothovius, written shortly after we saw the Shoemaker Levy comet smash into Jupiter, he examines the idea of a comet impact on Earth around 534 A.D. There is evidence, supported by the dendrochronology data, that something occurred around this time to cause abnormally low temperatures that lasted for about fifteen to twenty years in the Northern Hemisphere.
He suggests that the impact might have been a fragment of Halley’s Comet, which would have been seen in September 530 A.D. He also makes reference to the: "Celtic traditions of the submergence of three large coastal areas in Cornwall, Wales and Brittany."
Within this time-frame it appears that not only was Lyonesse sunk, but also the 
Lost Land of Cantref in Cardigan Bay, Wales,and the lost city of Ys, which Breton legend says sank beneath the 
Bay of Douarnenez. During the same time-frame there were many other catastrophes that befell various parts of the world, including earthquakes, plagues, and tsunamis.
However, the contemporary historical sources of Gildas, and Nennius, don’t mention any such flooding event. And during the conquest of Anglesey, undertaken by Suetonius, the author Tacitus notes that the Romans had to cross the Menai Straits to reach the island.
Old Maps
It would appear that in Roman times the Isles of Scilly were still a single island. There are old maps from the period which seem to substantiate this fact. Nigel Pennick wrote a book entitled Lost Lands and Sunken Cities in which he states in his introduction:
"Apart from the more-or-less legendary lost lands like Lyonesse, which is said to have existed between Cornwall and the Scillies, large tracts of coastal land have vanished from mainland Britain over the last two thousand years."
Plato
In Andrew Collins’s article, entitled Atlantis in Northern Europe, he examines why this part of Europe should be linked to Plato’s Atlantis. He begins by referencing an 1876 book, entitled The Oera Linda Book, that was ostensibly a translation of a 13th Century ancient Frisian text. It told of an old land known as Atland, or Aldland, that supposedly was to be found in the North Sea between Denmark and Shetland. This ancient land was said to have been destroyed by floods and upheaval in 2,193 B.C. However, the book was never given credence by serious academics, and it was dismissed as pure hoax. You can read the rest of the article here:
http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/interactive/northeur.htm
Trevelyan
There is a persistent legend that a man who escaped the inundation of Lyonesse, on his white horse, founded the Cornish family of Trevelyan; whose family crest still shows a white horse. He out-rode the flood until he reached the higher ground of Perranuthnoe, now on the south coast of Cornwall.
Fanciful as that sounds, there are also reports of similar events happening during the 1953 and 1978 flood disasters in East Anglia. You can read more about the Trevelyan legend here:
http://www.britannia.com/history/legend/cornish/cornss04.html
Plus, you can read about Trevelyan at this site, which also mentions the archaeological remains to be seen around the islands:
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/4641
King Arthur
Of course it isn’t possible to write about Lyonesse without mentioning its relevance to the Arthurian legends, and especially the story of Tristan. But my purpose here is to look at the real evidence for the existence of this sunken land. However, if you’d like to read about the Arthurian ideas then the following links will give you most of the information. The first link gives information about the oral tradition, and writing, from which it comes:
http://www.timelessmyths.com/celtic/armorican.html
http://www.kingarthursknights.com/theland/lyonesse.asp
http://www.occultopedia.com/l/lyonesse.htm
http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/tristram.html
Ritual Landscapes & Ley Lines
Another very interesting aspect of Lyonesse is its relevance to thefamous 
St. Michael Ley Line that runs from St. Michael’s Mount, off the coast of Penzance in Cornwall, to the coast near Bury St. Edmunds in East Anglia. 
John Michel, in his book entitled The Sun and The Serpent, proposes that the line actually starts fromMont St. Michel, just off the coast of France. All along this particular Ley Line can be found many of Britain’s megalithic monuments.
There used to be an online article that discussed the apparent worldwide feelings of "something" not being right with the natural world around us, and the fact that a Dimensional Shift appeared to be on the horizon. Unfortunately I can no longer find it, but the main bulk of the piece was devoted to Crop Circles; asking what they were, and how they might be made in conjunction with UFOs, plus some of the strange phenomena experienced whist standing inside them. 
The really interesting part was the relationship they may have with Ley Lines, especially the Michael/Mary Ley Line which, as previously stated, is one of the most powerful to be found anywhere in the world, and which might even be a part of a global Ley Line that once passed through Lyonesse. Here’s just one quote from the article:
"This sudden reanimation makes me wonder if the Crop Circle Makers have been 'feeding' the energies in preparation for Cosmic events that will affect us here. In Ancient cultures, how to awaken this female serpent was the key, for when this Goddess ground energy failed to appear, the Old King civilisation would have to die and a new 'Snake Charmer' was called in, lest the land and her people went to waste."
If you’d like to read more about Ley Lines there is a very good book entitled Ley Lines – A Comprehensive Guide to Alignments written by Danny Sullivan.
UFOs
At one Internet forum there used to be a thread that talked of Lyonesse. However, it also covered some other very intriguing topics including underwater bases off the Cornish coast, "Wurst" shaped UFO sightings, natiform tazza sightings between 1958 and 1960, and the strange sinking of the Trewlany in 1946. But unfortunately, doing my usual Googling, I haven’t been able to turn up any further references to these.
Our ancient ancestors were very much like us, so why are their myths and legends continually dismissed as being just that? If you study them closely it’s clear that they are describing real events, but they were only able to do so in the words and concepts that they understood. In choosing to read them only from our modern-day perspective perhaps we dismiss them at our peril!