Case file · Folklore / legend
Hy-Brasil, the island west of Ireland
An island called 'Bracile' first appears west of Ireland on Angelino Dalorto's chart of 1325, and stayed on maps for centuries as Hy-Brasil, said in Irish lore to be hidden in mist and seen once every seven years.
1325 CE · 51.50, -15.00 · status: legend
The account
Expeditions from Bristol searched for it in the 1480s. In 1674 a Captain John Nisbet claimed to have landed there. It was dropped from charts in the 1860s.
The sceptical view
No such island exists; the Porcupine Bank, cloud banks and mirages are offered as origins.
Connections in the atlas
- San Borondón, the phantom island
- Hy-Brasil, the island seen every seven years
- Frisland, the island that never was
- Manannán mac Lir and his cloak of mist