Sacred Isle

or Holy Island. Ireland was so called because of its many saints, and Guernsey for its many monks. The island referred to by Thomas Moore in his Irish Melodies (No. II.) is Scattery, to which St. Senaʹnus retired, and vowed that no woman should set foot thereon.

“Oh, haste and leave this sacred isle,

Unholy bark, ere morning smile.”

St. Senanus and the Lady.

Enhallow (from the Norse Eyinhalga, Holy Isle) is the name of a small island in the Orkney group, where cells of the Irish anchorite fathers are said still to exist.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.