STEEP-HOLMES-ISLAND, an island, in the parish of UPHILL, hundred of WINTERSTOKE, county of SOMERSET, 2 leagues (W. by N.) from Uphill. It is a vast rock, about a mile and a half in circumference, rising perpendicularly out of the Bristol channel to the height of four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and inaccessible at all points except two. A few rabbits burrow here, and great numbers of sea-fowl build their nests within the recesses of its overhanging rocks. A house was erected, in 1776, for the accommodation of fishermen, who occasionally make this island their resort. A priory is supposed to have been founded here, about the reign of Edward II., by Maurice, Lord Berkeley.