The mysterious island of Hy-Brasil: The ‘other’ Atlantis

[Debby ♥Many Nations♥]

It is undisputed that the most famous ‘lost island’ is Atlantis. But there is another island which is just as mysterious called Hy-Brasil.
The island is said to be located to the west of Ireland and is known as Hy-Brasil in Irish mythology.

Hy-Brasil (also spelled Hy-Breasal, Hy-Brazil, Hy-Breasil, Brazir) may also be responsible for the naming of the country we know today as Brazil.
According to legends of long ago, Hy-Brasil was a secret land once ruled by priests. These priests held the secrets to the universe and had access to ancient, but powerful knowledge. In folklore, this island country takes its name from Breasal, the High King of the World, in Celtic history.
The island is said to be cloaked in mist, except for one day each seven years, when it became visible but could still not easily be reached.
Over the centuries a number of maps have charted the position of the island. On maps, the island was shown as being circular, often with a central strait or river running east-west across its diameter.
A Catalan map from around 1480 labels two islands “Illa de brasil”, one to the south west of Ireland and the other south of “Illa verde” or what is now known as Greenland.
There have been numerous expeditions in the past to search for this mythical land. One expedition in 1497 was led by John Cabot. He reported that he had found the land and it had been “discovered in the past by the men from Bristol who found Brasil”.
Some historians note that the renowned navigator Pedro Alvarez Cabral also claimed to have reached the island during his voyages in the 1500′s.
The 1600′s had a wealth of reports about the island. In 1674 a Captain John Nisbet and his crew were in familiar waters off the west coast of Ireland. They were enshrouded in fog.
As the fog lifted, they saw that they were close to an island, so anchored in three fathoms of water.
According to reports, four crew members took a small boat and landed on the island. They spent a day there before returning laden with gold and silver. They claimed that an old man who lived on the island had given it to them as a gift.
When they returned to Ireland, a second ship under the command of Alexander Johnson set out to find the island. According to reports of the time, they too found an hospitable island and returned to confirm the previous report.
In 1684, in a book called ‘A Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught’ mentions an encounter with the island:

“There is now living, Morogh O’Ley (Murrough O Laoi), who imagins he was personally on O’Brasil for two days, and saw out of it the iles of Aran, Golamhead, Irrosbeghill, and other places of the west continent he was acquainted with.”

The last sighting of the island occured in 1872. Author T. J. Westropp and several companions claim to have seen the island appear and then vanish. According to reports this was the third time that the author had seen Hy-Brasil and had brought his mother and companions to witness it for themselves.
The island was once again brought into the public mind in late 2010 with a TV series revelation.
In 1980 Sgt Jim Penniston was stationed at Brentwaters military base. During the UFO incident in Rendlesham Forest, he claims that he touched a UFO and telepathically received a message in the form of binary code, which he wrote down in a small note book shortly after the incident, telling no one about it for three decades.
On the History Channel program ‘Ancient Aliens’ this binary was said to have been decoded by Internet programmer Nick Ciske.
Below the decoded message followed the navigational co-ordinates of an area off the west of Ireland which correlates to the site of Hy-Brasil.
The decoded message read:
Exploration of Humanity Continuous For Planetary Advance
52° 09′ 42.532″ N
13° 13′ 12.69″ W
So, did / does Hy-Brasil actually exist?
Some people claim that what people are acutally seeing is an area near Ireland called the Porcupine Bank.
Porcupine Bank is an area of the Irish shelf approximately 200 kilometers west of Ireland. The relatively raised area of seabed lies between the deep-water Porcupine Seabight and Rockall Trough.
The northern and western slopes of the bank feature species of cold-water corals.
Could it be possible that during times of extreme spring tides that this Bank is epxosed to the surface of the sea? As early as 1870 a paper was read to the Geological Society of Ireland suggesting this identification.
If so, this could explain the reports of land which subsequently disappear quite quickly.
Of course another possible theory is that Hy-Brasil is in fact the lost realm of Atlantis which was said to be situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar).
The supposed location of Hy-Brasil is indeed beyond the Pillars and therefore fits into the Atlantis location as mentioned by Plato. Is this enough to say that they are one and the same? Certainly the location and the mythology would agree.

A new book suggests that the Hill of Tara was the capital city of the lost kindgom of Atlantis. The claim is made by geologist Ulf Erlingsson in his book 'Atlantis from a Geographer’s Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land'.....

http://www.mythicalireland.com/