Inchcape
Encyclopedia
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, near Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
and Fife
Fife
Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
(56°26.052′N 2°23.236′W). Bell Rock Lighthouse
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Bell Rock Lighthouse is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse and was built on Bell Rock in the North Sea, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, east of the Firth of Tay...
, an automatic lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
, occupies the reef. The construction of the Lighthouse began in 1807 and was largely finished in 1810.
Both its names probably refer to its distinctive shape, Inchcape coming from Scottish Gaelic Innis Sgeip, meaning "Beehive
Beehive (beekeeping)
A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Natural beehives are naturally occurring structures occupied by honeybee colonies, while domesticated honeybees live in man-made beehives, often in an apiary. These man-made...
isle", probably referring to the old style rope beehives. The main problem with the reef is that a relatively small proportion of it is above water, but that a large section of the surrounding area is extremely shallow and dangerous.
The rock was featured in a one hour episode of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World
Seven Wonders of the Industrial World is a 7-part British documentary/docudrama television miniseries that originally aired from to on BBC...
which told the story of the Bell Rock Lighthouse's
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Bell Rock Lighthouse is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse and was built on Bell Rock in the North Sea, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, east of the Firth of Tay...
construction.
Southey's Poem
According to legend, probably folk etymology, the rock is called Bell Rock because of a 14th century attempt by the abbotAbbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
from Arbroath ("Aberbrothock") to install a warning bell on it. It was removed by a Dutch pirate who then perished a year later on the same rocks. This story is immortalised in The Inchcape Rock (1820), a famous poem by Robert Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
. http://www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/literacy/lit_site/html/fiction/narrative/inchcape_rock/ (verses 3 & 4):
- The Abbot of Aberbrothok [i.e. Arbroath]
- Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
- On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
- And over the waves its warning rung.
- When the Rock was hid by the surge’s swell,
- The Mariners heard the warning Bell;
- And then they knew the perilous Rock,
- And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok
In the poem, the bell is cut off by someone known as "Ralph the Rover", out of spite. When it is cut off, Ralph says, "The next who comes to the Rock,
Won’t bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok." But in a case of just desserts, Ralph and his ship are eventually scuppered by the rock that they helped to remove the bell from. In classic 19th century Romantic style, the ship sinks dramatically, and Ralph hears Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
calling (last two verses):
- Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair,
- He curst himself in his despair;
- The waves rush in on every side,
- The ship is sinking beneath the tide.
- But even in his dying fear,
- One dreadful sound could the Rover hear;
- A sound as if with the Inchcape Bell,
- The Devil below was ringing his knell.