The Bass
Rock

The Bass
Rock lies about two miles off the North Berwick coast
although it looks closer, and is opposite the ancient
castle of Tantallon.

Today it is a well known sea bird sanctuary with a large
colony of about 100,000 gannets, but it has a much darker past as a
singularly desolate prison for many of the Covenanter
leaders between 1673 and 1687. The
Bass, dedicated to St Baldred (who
is said to have died there, 6th
March 606), was united to the Parish of North
Berwick in 1581.
A curious remnant of
old ecclesiastical privilege
still exists twelve
solan geese with the feathers on being annually
paid to the
minister of North Berwick as “Vicar of the
Bass.”

 The island at one time
belonged to Sir Andrew Ramsay, Provost of Edinburgh who saw the opportunity of profit when a place to lock up Covenanter prisoners was needed.
He had been a member of a committee that had considered  what might
be done to prevent conventicles and punishing persons who withdrew from
the parish church ordinances. At this time ( March 1671) the government
was in need of a prison for the growing number of Covenanters being taken
into custody. One version is that the Bass was part of the estate of
Waughton, near North Berwick and that Ramsay came to ownership through
marriage to the heiress. Another version is that he bought the island for £400 and convinced Lauderdale, Secretary of State for Scotland, that it would be a suitable place for a prison. He sold it for £4000
probably with the hope that he might be made the salaried Governor of the 
prison. Lauderdale had
it turned into a prison which was to house 39 Covenanters
in extremely tough conditions.

The
Bass Rock is itself only about three quarters of a mile in
circumference with sheer cliffs on three sides rising to
over 300 feet, on the fourth is a narrow and dangerous
landing point. Even on calm days the seas swell and roll
round the island with a dangerous tidal flow between it
and the mainland – not a place to attempt escape by
swimming. On the island, once a retreat for a Welsh monk
in the seventh century, there was little shelter until the
building of the prison quarters and a Governor’s house,
which in heavy seas would be awash. Some of the cells had
only one small window which was out of reach of the
prisoner – who was therefore unable to view the outside.
Other cells looked only upon a paved walkway where the
soldiers stood guard. There was, too, a dark, dank dungeon
– the Black Hole. Into
the Bass were cast many of the more troublesome
Covenanters for periods ranging from a few months to years
including John Dickinson who had two visits to the
Edinburgh Tolbooth and then spent nearly seven years as a
prisoner on the Bass Rock. A prominent lay man – who was
the last prisoner to leave the Bass in 1687, was
John Spreul, apothecary of
Glasgow who suffered greatly for his conscience. Being
well off by the standards of the time, he was a special
target of the grasping oppressors.

There has
been some debate over the years who exactly was imprisoned
on the Bass. One would expect that the Rev John Blackadder
(who died there) would have a good idea who his companions
were and gives one list in his `Memoirs`. It is, however,
generally accepted that the list of the Rev. James
Anderson, contributor to McCries “The Bass Rock: Its
Civil and Ecclesiastical History“ (1847) is nearest
the mark (he rejected twelve of Blackader`s list). The
Anderson list, cited in Johnstons Treasury is: