Editing Bass Rock (section)

===Castle===
[[File:Bass Rock Castle Lighthouse 1.jpg|right|thumb|The remains of the castle in 2007, and the lighthouse|262x262px]]
[[File:Fortifications on the Bass Rock (geograph 3331410).jpg|thumb|right|Fortifications on the Bass Rock|262x262px]]
The Lauders built a fortification not far above the island's only landing-place. The slope is crossed by a [[Curtain wall (fortification)|curtain wall]], which naturally follows the lie of the ground, having projections and round [[bastions]] where a rocky projection offers a suitable foundation. The [[parapet]]s are [[Battlements|battlemented]], with the usual walk along the top of the walls. Another curtain wall at right-angles runs down to the sea close to the landing-place, ending in a ruined round tower, whose vaulted base has poorly splayed and apparently rather unskilfully constructed [[embrasure]]s. The entrance passes through this outwork wall close to where it joins the other.

The main defences are entered a little farther on in the same line, through a projecting two-story building which has some fireplaces with very simple and late mouldings. The buildings are of the local [[basalt]], and the masonry is rough rubble; there are, as is so frequently the case, no very clear indications for dating the different parts, which were in all probability erected at different times.

A little beyond the entrance there was a tower that formed a simple keep/bastion and to which had been added a gabled chamber in the 17th century, which, though of restricted dimensions, must have been comfortable enough, with blue Dutch tiles round its moulded fireplace, later very much decayed. The keep and the living quarters within the walls were taken down to provide stone for the lighthouse in 1902.

A [[Water well|well]] at the top of the Bass, where today the [[foghorn]] is situated, provided [[freshwater]] for the island's occupants.