Bishop Rock is a small rocky ledge jutting out of the sea, 4 miles west of the Isles of Scilly in Cornwall. The rock rises from a depth of 45 meter to expose a tip 46 meters long by 16 meters wide. On this narrow ledge stands a lighthouse, which makes Bishop Rock the world's smallest island with a building on it, as recognized by the Guinness Book of Records.

The rocks around the Scilly Isles caused the wreck of many ships over the years. When Sir Cloudesley Shovel's squadron of the British Fleet sank in 1707 along with 2,000 men, the Elder Brethren of Trinity House decided that the lighting of the Scilly Isles, which at that time consisted of only the old lighthouse at St. Agnes, was inadequate, and resolved to build a lighthouse on the most westerly danger, the Bishop Rock.

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