The Bishop and the Diva

In the year of 1783, the United States of America came into being.

And in India, Ann Cargill, the celebrated and scandalous 23 yr. old opera singer, made 12,000 rupees from a single performance.

In March of 1784, on the way home from India, Ann, her baby, and her sea captain lover, were drowned amidst the Western Rocks off The Isles of Scilly. 

100 years (and many shipwrecks) later, on the Bishop Rock, a stone tower began to rise above the Atlantic.

One summer, unusually, the weather abated for a brief spell, and the builder, and the officers and men of Trinity House held a ‘Grand Ball’ on the tiny island of Rosevear.  

But then the weather closed in again. The dangerous task of building the lighthouse, that now stands guard over the Western Rocks, continued.

To this day, the Western Rocks are said to be haunted by the ghosts of the sailors that have died there, and by the voices of a beautiful singer and her baby.

In 1992, the last keepers left the light. Since then it has been maintained by land-based technicians, lifted onto the topmost platform of the tower, by helicopter.