Bass Castle is a castle on Bass Rock located off the coast of North Berwick, Scotland.
Bass Castle is a castle on Bass Rock located off the coast of North Berwick, Scotland.
The current structure dates back to the sixteenth century. However, a castle on the Bass rock has been referred to as early as 1405, [1] when the castle was said to have been a temporary refuge for Prince James from the Duke of Albany. The oldest building was thought to a hermitage built by Baldred of Tyninghame, and the chapel is known to have been consecrated in 1542 by David Beaton. [2]
The castle was described by the French soldier Jean de Beaugué who visited during the war now known as the Rough Wooing. He wrote that the garrison of 120 subsisted on fish dropped by sea birds. [3] The castle and island were owned by the Lauders of Bass in the sixteenth century until 1671, when it was sold to the Crown until 1706, when it was finally passed on to Sir Hew Dalrymple of North Berwick. [1] The Lauder family are said to have owned Bass Rock since 1318. [4]
In the mid-late seventeenth century, the island and a small room in the castle were used as a prison. [4] [5] From 1701, Bass Rock was no longer used as a prison and it is said that the castle was partially demolished in the same year. [5]
The castle has been visited by many historic figures including James VI in 1581. [5] He offered to buy the island from George Lauder, but his offer was declined. [6]
The castle is currently a ruin, with only some of the original walls remaining. [5] A lighthouse was built on top of it in 1902. [7]
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 early 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 before 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 former Royal Burgh of Lauder is a town in the Scottish Borders in the historic county of Berwickshire. On the Southern Upland Way, the burgh lies 27 miles (43 km) southeast of Edinburgh, on the western edge of the Lammermuir Hills.
North Berwick is a seaside town and former royal burgh in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately 20 miles (32 km) east-northeast of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holiday resort in the nineteenth century because of its two sandy bays, the East Bay and the West Bay, and continues to attract holidaymakers. Golf courses at the ends of each bay are open to visitors.
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall, 7th Baronet, FRSE FSA (Scot) LLD was a Scottish author. He served as Secretary to the Board of Manufactures (1839–), on the Herring Fisheries Board, at the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, and as Deputy Lieutenant of both counties of Moray and Haddington.
Fidra is a currently uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth, 4 kilometres northwest of North Berwick, on the east coast of Scotland. The island is an RSPB Scotland nature reserve.
Sir Robert Lauder of the Bass was a Scottish knight, armiger, and Governor of the Castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was also a member of the old Scottish Parliament. The Lauders held the feudal barony of The Bass, East Lothian, Edrington Castle and lands in the parish of Mordington, Berwickshire, Tyninghame in Haddingtonshire, and numerous other estates and properties elsewhere in Scotland.
The Grange is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hill to the south. It is a conservation area characterised by large early Victorian stone-built villas and mansions, often with very large gardens. The Grange was built mainly between 1830 and 1890, and the area represented the idealisation of country living within an urban setting.
Edrington is a medieval estate occupying the lower part of Mordington parish in Berwickshire, Scotland, five miles (8.0 km) west of Berwick-upon-Tweed. From probably the 14th century, if not earlier, a castle occupied the steep hill above the mill of the same name on the Whiteadder Water. The castle ruin is still marked on today's Ordnance Survey maps, and still appears in locality references in The Berwickshire News. The principal farm of the estate is Edrington Mains.
Sir Andrew Lauder of Fountainhall, 5th Baronet was a Burgess of the Royal Burgh of Lauder, and also of Musselburgh.
George de Lawedreof Haltoun was a Burgess and Provost of Edinburgh in the early 15th century.
Sir George Lauder of the Bass, Knight, was a cleric, Privy Counsellor, and Member of the Scottish Parliament. He was a legal tutor to Prince Henry.
Robert Lauder of The Bass was an important noble in Haddingtonshire, the Merse, and Fife. Stodart remarks that "to 1600 the barons of the Bass sat in almost every parliament". He was a firm supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots whom he accompanied to Carberry Hill on 14 June 1567, and fought for at the battle of Langside.
Sir Robert de Lawedre (Lauder), Knt., of Quarrelwood, Edrington, and the Bass was Justiciar of Scotia, a Scottish soldier of great prominence and Captain of Urquhart Castle. He is recorded by Fordun, in his Scotichronicon, and in Extracta ex variis Cronicis Scocie as "Robertus de Lavedir 'the good'"
Marie Maitland was a Scottish writer and poet, a member of the Maitland family of Lethington and Thirlestane Castle, and later Lady Haltoun. Her first name is sometimes written as "Mary".
Sir James Dick of Prestonfield was a 17th and 18th century Scottish merchant who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1679 to 1681. He was the first Baronet of Prestonfield and was progenitor to the Dick baronets.
Sir William Dick of Braid (1580–1655) was a 17th-century Scottish landowner, banker and merchant who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1638 to 1640. His fortunes took him from being "the richest man in Scotland" in 1650 to his death as a pauper a few years later.
Nicholas (Nicol) Uddert or Udward or Udwart or Anglicised as Nicol Edward was a 16th century Scottish merchant who served as Provost of Edinburgh in 1592/93.
Jane Stewart Smith was a Scottish painter and draughtswoman, based in Edinburgh.
Lauder Tower was a 15th century tower house located in Lauder, Scottish Borders, Scotland.
Muircleuch Tower was a peel tower house located near Muircleuch, Scottish Borders, Scotland.