Rosemary Bank is a seamount approximately west of Scotland, located in the

Rockall Trough The Rockall Trough ( gd, Clais Sgeir Rocail) is a deep-water bathymetric feature to the northwest of Scotland and Ireland, running roughly from southwest to northeast, flanked on the north by the Rockall Plateau and to the south by the Porc ...

, in the northeast

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

. It was discovered in 1930 by the survey vessel HMS ''Rosemary'', from which it takes its name. It is one of only three seamounts known in Scottish waters. Rosemary Bank hosts a range of important habitats including deep sea

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

aggregations and cold water coral. Many species of fish, including

orange roughy The orange roughy (''Hoplostethus atlanticus''), also known as the red roughy, slimehead and deep sea perch, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). The UK Marine Conservation Society has categori ...

, blue ling,

leafscale gulper shark The leafscale gulper shark (''Centrophorus squamosus'') is a dogfish of the family Centrophoridae. ''C. squamosus'' is reported to have a lifespan of approximately 70 years, based on otolith ring counts. It was the first described species in ...

and Portuguese dogfish are also found here. In 2014 the bank was declared a Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (NCMPA) in order to protect the sponge aggregations, and the cenozoic marine geomorphology of the seabed. The designation was withdrawn in 2020, when it was replaced by the West of Scotland Marine Protected Area, which covers a much larger area. The feature originated about 70 million years ago, as a result of volcanic activity. Rosemary Bank rises to approximately above the sea floor, its highest point being below sea-level. Around its base lies a thin "moat", where the sea-bottom is up lower than the surrounding terrain. The lowest parts of these area are approximately below sea level.

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* {{coord, 59, 25, N, 10, 15, W, type:mountain, display=title Seamounts of the Atlantic Ocean Cretaceous volcanoes