Bass Rock

Today we sailed from North  Berwick to the Bass Rock and learned about its' history on the way there.  The Bass Rock, a volcanic plug about 2 miles north - east off North Berwick, is home to the largest single rock colony of Gannets in the world.  The castle on this rock was Scotland's own Alcatraz ie prison in 1671 housing religious and political prisoners, Covenanters.  From 1672 - 1688 around 40 people died in its dungeons and between  1688 - 1692 a handful of prisoners were incarcerated there during the first Jacobite uprising.
The Bass Rock is mentioned in the novel "Catriona" by R L Stevenson whose cousin David Stevenson designed the lighthouse on the rock in 1902.