Deerness

The Covenanter's Memorial at Deerness, commemorating the loss in a shipwreck of 200 covenanters en route to the New World of America (as a punishment), was largely paid for by Robert Halliday Gunning. The inscription on the monument reads "For Christ His Crown Covenant, erected by public subscription Aug. 1888 to the memory of the 200 covenanters who were taken prisoners at Bothwell Bridge, and sentence to transportation for life; but who perished by shipwreck near this spot on 10th December 1679." John Blackadder recorded that a prisoner related the following: == Deerness Folklore ==

In the early 1890s an unidentified creature visited Newark Bay on Deerness 'and was seen by hundreds of sightseers'. It came to be known as the Deerness Mermaid. There is also a selkie legend associated with the parish. ==Notable people==

Edwin Muir was born in Deerness in 1887. ==References==