Information about Bass Rock

Bass Rock
Location
OS grid reference:	NT602873
Names
Gaelic name:
Area and Summit
Area:	3 ha
Highest elevation:	107 m
Population
Population (2001):	0
Groupings
Island Group:	Islands of the Forth
Local Authority:	East Lothian
References:	[1][2][3][4]

The Bass Rock, or simply The Bass,^[5] is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, approximately one mile off North Berwick.

The island 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". It is of a similar geological form to nearby North Berwick Law, a hill on the mainland.^[6]

Geography and geology

The island is "a volcanic plug of phonolite", dating to the Carboniferous period.^[2][6] The rock was first recognised as an igneous intrusion by James Hutton, while Hugh Miller, who visited in 1847, wrote about the Rock's geology in his book Edinburgh and its Neighbourhood, Geological and Historical: with The Geology of the Bass Rock.^[6][8]

History

The Lauder Family

Historically the home of the Lauder of The Bass family (from whom Sir Harry Lauder is descended^[9]), who are the earliest recorded proprietors, the island is said to have been a gift from King Malcolm III of Scotland. 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".

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 did not 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.

After almost 600 years, the family 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.

Buildings & Structures

Not far above the landing-place the slope is crossed by a curtain wall, which naturally follows the lie of the ground, having sundry projections and round bastions where a rocky projection offers a suitable foundation. The parapets are battlemented, with the usual walk along the top of the walls. Another curtain wall at right-angles runs down to the sea close to the landing-place, ending in a ruined round tower, whose vaulted base has poorly splayed and apparently rather unskilfully constructed embrasures. The entrance passes through this outwork wall close to where it joins the other.

The main defences are entered a little farther on in the same line, through a projecting two-story building which has some fireplaces with very simple and late mouldings. The buildings are of the local basalt, and the masonry is rough rubble; there are, as is so frequently the case, no very clear indications for dating the different parts, which were in all probability erected at different times.

A little beyond the entrance there is a tower that formed a simple bastion and to which has been added a gabled chamber in the 17th century, which, though of restricted dimensions, must have been comfortable enough, with blue Dutch tiles round its moulded fireplace, now very much decayed.



During the 16th and 17th centuries there was sufficient grass present for 100 sheep to graze. The freshwater well was right at the top of the island, where today the foghorn is situated.

Half-way up the island stands the ruin of St Baldred's Chapel, which is sited upon a cell or cave in which this Scottish Saint spent some time. Although the Lauders held most of the Bass Rock, this part of it had remained in the ownership of The Church until 1316 when it was granted to the family. The chapel appears to have been rebuilt by the Lauder family several times. A Papal Bull dated May 6, 1493, refers to the Parish Church of the Bass, or the Chapel of St Baldred, being "noviter erecta" at that time. On the January 5, 1542 we find John Lauder, son of Sir Robert Lauder of The Bass, Knt., as "the Cardinal's Secretary" representing Cardinal David Beaton at a reconsecration of the restored and ancient St. Baldred's chapel on The Bass. In 1576 it is recorded that the Church on the Bass, and that at Auldhame (on the mainland), required no readers, doubtless something to do with the Reformation.

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. It has been unmanned since 1988.

Wildlife

The island plays host to at least 40,000 pairs of Gannets and is the largest single rock gannetry in the world so that, 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^[10]). 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.


Coordinates:

References

• The History of Scotland, by Patrick Fraser Tytler, Edinburgh, 1866, vol.III, pps:187 -190.)
• The Bass - Early notices by John J. Reid, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1885.
• Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland 1357 - 1509, edited by Joseph Bain, F.S.A.,(Scot), Edinburgh, 1888, vol. iv, number 942, 3rd February, 1424.
• North Berwick, Gullane, Aberlady and East Linton District, by R.P.Phillimore, North Berwick, 1913, p.40.
• The Berwick and Lothian Coasts by Ian C. Hannah, London & Leipzig, 1913.
• The Bass Rock in History in Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian & Field Naturalists' Society, 1948, vol.5, p.55.
• The Lauders of The Bass by G.M.S.Lauder-Frost, F.S.A.,(Scot), in East Lothian Life, Autumn 1996, issue 22, ISSN 1361-7818

External links

• Official Website
• History of Bass Rock Lighthouse
• Article from The Gazetter for Scotland
• Webcams at Scottish Seabird Centre Website

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