Everything about Bass Rock totally explained
The Bass Rock, or simply
The Bass, is an island in the outer part of the
Firth of Forth in the east of
Scotland, approximately one mile off
North Berwick. Its name, "Bass" is pronounced so that it rhymes with "mass", rather than as "base", as the term "bass" is used in music. It is 100 metres at its highest point.
Geography and geology
The island is "a
volcanic plug of
phonolite", dating to the
Carboniferous period.
The island, which has been privately owned by the Hamilton-Dalrymple family for 300 years, is a
volcanic plug and stands over 100 m high in the Firth of Forth Islands
Special Protection Area which covers some, but not all of the islands in the inner and outer Firth. The Bass Rock is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest in its own right, due to its
Gannet colony. It is sometimes called "the
Ailsa Craig of the East"
(External Link
)(External Link). It is of a similar geological form to nearby
North Berwick Law, a hill on the mainland.), who are the earliest recorded proprietors. According to later legend, the island is said to have been a gift from King
Malcolm III of Scotland, though in reality the family don't appear until the 14th century. Their crest is, appropriately, a Gannet standing upon a rock.
The family had from an early date a castle on the island. Sir Robert de Lawedre is mentioned by
Blind Harry as a compatriot of
William Wallace, and
Alexander Nisbet recorded his tombstone in 1718, in the floor of the old kirk in
North Berwick: "here lies Sir Robert de Lawedre, great laird of The Bass, who died May 1311". Five years later his son received that part of the island which until then had been retained by The Church because it contained the holy cell of Saint
Baldred. A century on
Wyntown's
Cronykil relates: "In
1406 King
Robert III, apprehensive of danger to his son James (afterwards
James I) from the Duke of Albany, placed the youthful prince in the safe-custody of Sir Robert Lauder in his secure castle on The Bass prior to an embarkation for safer parts on the continent." Subsequently, says
Tytler, "Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass was one of the few people whom King James I admitted to his confidence." In 1424 Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass, with 18 men, had a safe-conduct with a host of other noblemen, as a hostage for James I at
Durham. J J Reid also mentions that "in 1424 when King James I returned from his long captivity in England, he at once consigned to the castle of The Bass, Walter Stewart, the eldest son of
Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, his cousin. The person who received the payments for the prisoner's support was Sir Robert Lauder", whom Tytler further describes as "a firm friend of the King".
Hector Boece
Hector Boece offers the following description (original spelling):
» "
ane wounderful crag, risand within the sea, with so narrow and strait hals [passage] that na schip nor boit bot allanerlie at ane part of it. This crag is callet the Bas; unwinnabil by ingine [ingenuity] of man. In it are coves, als profitable for defence of men as [if] thay were biggit be crafty industry. Every thing that's in that crag is ful of admiration and wounder."
Royal visits
In
1497 King
James IV visited the Bass and stayed in the castle with a later Sir
Robert Lauder of The Bass (d.bef Feb 1508). The boatmen who conveyed the King from
Dunbar were paid 14 shillings.
George Lauder of The Bass entertained King
James VI of Scotland when he visited The Bass in
1581 and was so enamoured that he offered to buy the island, a proposition which didn't commend itself to George Lauder. The King appears to have accepted the situation with good grace. George was a Privy Counsellor - described as the King's "familiar councillor" - and tutor to the young
Prince Henry.
Famous prisoners
During the 15th century
James I consigned several of his political enemies, including
Walter Stewart(External Link) to The Bass. In this period, many members of
Clan MacKay ended up here, including, Neil Bhass MacKay (Niall "Bhas" MacAoidh), who gained his epithet from being imprisoned there as a fourteen year old in 1428. He was kept there as a hostage, after his father, Aonghas Dubh (Angus Dhu) of
Strathnaver in
Sutherland was released, as security. According to one Website
» "
Following the murder of King James at Perth in 1437 Neil escaped from the Bass and was proclaimed 8th Chief of the Clan Mackay."
(External Link)
Cromwellian invasion and after
After almost 600 years, the Lauders lost The Bass during
Cromwell's invasion, and the castle subsequently (in
1671) became a notorious
gaol for many decades where many religious and political prisoners including
Prophet Peden were sent.
John Blackadder, the best known of the
Covenanting martyrs, died on the Bass in
1686. He is buried at North Berwick, where a
United Free Church was named after him.
Lighthouse
The island is home to a 20 metre
lighthouse, built in
1902 by
David Stevenson, who demolished the 13th century keep, or governor's house, and some other buildings within the castle for the stone. The Commissioners of the
Northern Lighthouse Board decided that a lighthouse should be erected on the Bass Rock in July 1897 along with another light at Barns Ness near
Dunbar. The cost of constructing the Bass Rock light was £8,087, a light first being shone from the rock on the evening of
1 November 1902. It has been unmanned since
1988 and is remotely monitored from the Board’s headquarters in
Edinburgh. Until the automation the lighthouse was lit by incandescent gas obtained from vaporised
paraffin oil converted into a bunsen gas for heating a mantle. Since that time a new Biform ML300 synchronised bifilament 20 watt electric lamp has been used. When viewed from the mainland, large regions of the surface appear white due to the sheer number of birds (and their droppings, which give off 152,000 kg of
ammonia per year, equivalent to the achievements of 10 million
broilers). In fact the scientific name for the
Northern Gannet,
Sula bassana or
Morus bassanus, derives its name from the rock. They were traditionally known locally as 'Solan Goose'. In common with other gannetries, such as
St Kilda, the birds were harvested for their eggs and flesh which were considered delicacies. Other bird species that frequent the rock include
Guillemot,
Razorbill,
Cormorant,
Puffin,
Eider Duck and numerous
gulls. Today, the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick has solar powered cameras located on the island which beam back live close up images of the seabirds to large screens on the mainland, just over a mile away. The images are sharp enough for visitors at the Scottish Seabird Centre to read the ID rings on birds' feet. The Seabird Centre has 10 cameras located on the islands of the Forth and also broadcasts the images live on the internet.. He often stayed at Scoughall Farm, whence the Bass can be seen
[, and some local folklore gave him the inspiration for his short story The Wreckers.][
Catriona is the 1893 sequel to Kidnapped, both by Robert Louis Stevenson. They are both set in the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion, in the mid-18th century.]
The first part of the Catriona recounts the attempts of the hero - David Balfour - to gain justice for James Stewart - James of the Glens - who has been arrested and charged with complicity in the Appin Murder. David makes a statement to a lawyer, and goes on to meet Lord Prestongrange - the Lord Advocate - to press the case for James' innocence. However his attempts fail as he's once again kidnapped and confined on the Bass Rock, until the trial is over, and James condemned to death.
The book begins with a dedication to Charles Baxter, a friend of Stevenson, written in his home in Western Samoa and says:
» There should be left in our native city some seed of the elect; some long-legged, hot-headed youth must repeat to-day our dreams and wanderings of so many years ago; he'll relish the pleasure, which should have been ours, to follow among named streets and numbered houses the country walks of David Balfour, to identify Dean, and Silvermills, and Broughton, and Hope Park, and Pilrig, and poor old Lochend - if it still be standing, and the Figgate Whins [thearea near Portobello] - if there be any of them left; or to push (on a long holiday) so far afield as Gillane or the Bass. So, perhaps, his eye shall be opened to behold the series of the generations, and he'll weigh with surprise his momentous and nugatory gift of life.
Chapter XIV is entitled simply, The Bass, and gives a long description of the island, which is described as "just the one crag of rock, as everybody knows, but great enough to carve a city from."
» " "It was an unco place by night, unco by day; and there were unco sounds; of the calling of the solans [gannets], and the plash [splash] of the sea, and the rock echoes that hung continually in our ears. It was chiefly so in moderate weather. When the waves were anyway great they roared about the rock like thunder and the drums of armies, dreadful, but merry to hear, and it was in the calm days when a man could daunt himself with listening; so many still, hollow noises haunted and reverberated in the porches of the rock."
Music
A pibroch was written by Iain Dall MacAoidh (MacKay), commemorating Neil Bhass' imprisonment and escape from the island, entitled The Unjust Incarceration "(External Link)(External Link)
Proverb
An old saying has the following:
» "Ding doun Tantallon,—
:Mak’ a brig to the Bass."(External Link)
In reference to the pitiful state of Tantallon Castle nearby.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bass Rock'.
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