Most people recognise the Canary Islands archipelago as being a cluster of eight inhabited islands. Of course, there are many more islets and rocky outcrops, which few people mention or know anything about. However, this story is about the ninth island, the ghost island, which is still being looked for…

The mysterious island of San Borondón, which is the Canarian name for an Irish monk called Saint Brendan of Clonfert, the Irish patron saint of travellers who lived around 500AD. Brendan was a monk in Tralee, County Kerry, who sailed in a small boat with 14 fellow monks into the Atlantic Ocean, in search of the New World. In true Irish fashion, best retold with a glass or two of Guinness, the story goes that Brendan met with fire hurling demons, a variety of monstrous creatures, and floating crystal columns, which were possibly icebergs; they also rescued three other monks from the inhospitable waters of the Atlantic. Eventually, they landed on an island where they found trees and a great deal of vegetation; it many ways, it was a true Garden of Eden. The monks lived on the island for six years when one day, as they were celebrating mass, the island began to move in the water, described as rather like a whale. After many trials and tribulations, Brendan eventually found his way back to Ireland with many a tale to tell over his glass of mead.

At the time, it was thought that the monks had reached the shores of North America, or possibly other Atlantic islands, such as the Canary Islands. Over time, it was thought that this new island, now named San Borondón’, was an island within the Canaries archipelago, somewhere to the west of La Gomera, El Hierro and La Palma. Other sailors attempted to reach it, but when they got close to its shores, the island became covered with mist and vanished.

San Borondón existed in the minds of many people, with detailed accounts from sailors who claimed that they had landed and explored the island before it sank once again into the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, in some early Atlantic treaties concerning the Canary Islands, there are references to “the islands of Canaria, already discovered or to be discovered”, just in case. Indeed, the Island of San Borondón is clearly referred to on several maps of the period.

In the 18^th Century, tens of thousands of witnesses declared to the authorities that they had seen the ghostly island from the mountains of El Hierro. Despite further expeditions, the island would not yield its secrets. The persistence of this legend of the voyage of Saint Brendan to the Promised Land of the Saints, the Islands of Happiness and Fortune, remains to this day. It is still possible to talk to some of the residents of El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma who claim to have seen the island briefly before it sank once again into the brilliant blue waters of the Canary Islands.

“Let the Guanche drums resound

and the conch shells blow,

for the mysterious island

is appearing in the midst of the waves:

here comes San Borondón,

showing up in the mist

like a queen

with the surf as suite…”

San Borondón – Cabrera/Santamaria

© Barrie Mahoney 2023

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