Inchcape or the Bell Rock is a reef about off the east coast of

Angus, Scotland Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include ...

, near

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

and

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

, occupied by the Bell Rock Lighthouse. The name ''Inchcape'' comes from the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

''Innis Sgeap'', meaning "

Beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

isle", probably comparing the shape of the reef to old-style

skep A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

beehives. According to legend, probably

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

, the alternative name Bell Rock derives from a 14th-century attempt by the

Abbot of Arbroath The Abbot of Arbroath or Abbot of Aberbrothok (and later Commendator) was the head of the Tironensian Benedictine monastic community of Arbroath Abbey, Angus, Scotland, founded under the patronage of King William of Scotland from Kelso Abbey an ...

("Aberbrothock") to install a warning bell on the reef; the bell was removed by a Dutch pirate who perished a year later on the rocks, a story that is immortalised in " The Inchcape Rock" (1802), a poem by Robert Southey. The main hazard the reef presents to shipping is that only a relatively small proportion of it is above water, but a large section of the surrounding area is extremely shallow and dangerous. The rock was featured in a one-hour episode of the BBC's '' Seven Wonders of the Industrial World'', which told the story of the Bell Rock Lighthouse's construction. Work began in 1807 and was largely completed by 1810.

Geology

Inchcape is formed of the

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

exposed in the nearby coastal areas, and of which Arbroath Abbey is built. The main body of the rock is about long and wide, but the south-western part extends for another or so.

Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engli ...

, the engineer who designed and built the lighthouse on the rock, estimated that the "greatest length, therefore, of the Bell Rock, which may be said to be dangerous to shipping, is about 1427 feet (435m), and its greatest breadth is about 300 feet (91.4m)."

References

{{reflist, refs= {{citation , last=Grant , first=Alison , title=Gaelic Place-names: Eilean and Innis , date=November 2012 , magazine=The Bottle Imp , issue=12 , url=http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ScotLit/ASLS/SWE/TBI/TBIIssue12/Eilean.pdf , publisher=Association for Scottish Literary Studies , issn=1754-1514 {{citation , title=Bell Rock Lighthouse, contribution= The Origins of the Rock: A treacherous Reef ... , publisher=Bellrock.org.uk , url=http://www.bellrock.org.uk/lighthouse/lighthouse_rock.htm , access-date=16 October 2013

External links

Bell Rock website

Islands of the North Sea Skerries of Scotland Landforms of Angus, Scotland Reefs of Scotland

Geology

See also

References

External links