According to legend, St Mawes, the tenth son of an Irish king was going about his business of preaching one day when he was interrupted by the continued barking of a seal. His patience ran dry and so, he hurled a large rock at the creature. The rock missed and to this day, so legend says, the rock remains, wedged on top of a cluster of black rocks halfway across the entrance to Falmouth harbour (
Link Visit Falmouth).
Black Rock was previously known as Falmouth Rock or Parson’s Rock. During the reign of Charles II, the Rector of Falmouth had a pole erected on Black Rock to warn ships of the danger posed by the isolated rock. The large elm "as thick around as a man" was placed in a hole in the rock and secured by molten lead. A conspicuous red pennant was flown from the pole. Work on building a beacon on the rock began in 1834, three years after St Anthony's lighthouse was built. Masons had to level off a 20 foot square base on the shoal and foundations for the granite structure went six feet down into the rock floor. The conical beacon is 37 foot high, 20 foot wide at the base and four foot wide at its apex. The beacon carries a flashing light with range of three miles (
Link The Falmouth Packet).