Wolf Rock

Wolf Rock is a single small rock in the English Channel, about 33 kilometers east of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly and 15 kilometers southwest of Land's End in Cornwall. Unlike the granite that makes up the nearby Cornish mainland, Wolf Rock is a small plug of phonolitic lava formed in the early Cretaceous period, an isolated volcanic remnant surrounded by open water. Its Cornish name, An Welv, meaning the lip, refers to the howling sound produced by fissures in the rock during gales. The rock carries the Wolf Rock Lighthouse, a 41 meter granite tower built between 1861 and 1869 to designs by James Walker and completed by the Douglass brothers, which became the first lighthouse in the world fitted with a helipad in 1972.