Bass Rock (Écosse)

Bass Rock ou the Bass, en gaélique écossais Creag nam Bathais et Am Bas, est une île inhabitée située en Écosse, dans l'estuaire du Firth of Forth, en mer du Nord, à environ un kilomètre et demi au nord-est de la ville de North Berwick. L'île abrite un phare et les ruines d'un château et d'une chapelle et constitue un important lieu de nidification pour des milliers d'oiseaux de mer.

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Bass Rock

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 2 km (1 mi) offshore, and 5 km (3 mi) north-east of North Berwick, it is a steep-sided volcanic plug, 107 m (351 ft) at its highest point, and is home to a large colony of gannets. The rock is uninhabited, but historically has been settled by an 8th-century Christian hermit, and later was the site of an important castle, which after the Commonwealth period was used as a prison. The island belongs to Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple, whose family acquired it in 1706, and previously to the Lauder family for almost six centuries. The Bass Rock Lighthouse was constructed on the rock in 1902, and the remains of a chapel survive. The Bass Rock features in many works of fiction, including Lion Let Loose by Nigel Tranter, Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Lion Is Rampant by the Scottish novelist Ross Laidlaw and The New Confessions by William Boyd. Most recently it features prominently in The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld, which won the 2021 Stella Prize.

Bass Castle

Bass Castle is a castle on Bass Rock located off the coast of North Berwick, Scotland.

Bass Rock Lighthouse

The Bass Rock Lighthouse on Bass Rock is a 20-metre (66 ft) 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.

Canty Bay

Canty Bay is a small inlet and coastal hamlet on the northern coast of East Lothian, Scotland. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) east of North Berwick and is opposite the Bass Rock and Tantallon Castle. Other settlements nearby include Auldhame, Scoughall, Seacliff, and the Peffer Sands. Canty Bay means "bay of the little head" from the Gaelic ceanntan, diminutive of ceann. The Glen Golf Club is close to its western side, and to the east there are high coastal cliffs. There are two beaches separated by a rocky headland. The western beach is uninhabited and accessible by two paths that descend the grass-covered cliffs from the eastern end of the Glen golf course. The eastern beach is by the hamlet. This former fishing hamlet has been immortalised by William McGonagall in his poem Beautiful North Berwick and its surroundings. The Canty Bay Inn offered hospitality to the tourists who came to see the Bass Rock. The tenant of the Rock was usually also the innkeeper. The William Edgar Evans Charitable Trust maintains a house and two cottages for use by Scout and Guide troops. Dolphins can be seen at Canty Bay and from the Scottish Seabird Centre.

Auldhame Castle

Auldhame Castle is a ruined L-plan tower house standing on a ridge above Seacliff beach, about 3 miles east of North Berwick in East Lothian, and less than half a mile from Tantallon Castle.