J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Turner’s inscription, ‘May’, tells us that this sheet shows the small Isle of May, which lies about five miles from mainland Scotland in the mouth of the Forth between Crail in the north and Berwick in the south. Although the island was not on Scott’s list of Antiquities it is not surprising that Turner drew it since it would have held both contemporary and historic interest for the artist. The new lighthouse had recently been built (1816) by Robert Stevenson in the style of a gothic castle, and the island was home to one of the earliest Christian churches in Scotland, built in the ninth century on the site of an ancient burial mound.

The top two sketches show the island from the south, probably from North Berwick, with prominence given to the tower of the lighthouse. The bottom sketch may show the coastline around Auldhame near North Berwick from the Scoughall Rocks with Tantallon Castle represented by two rough squares, and rocks behind. A similar view is sketched at the bottom of folio 3 verso (D13326; CLXV 3a).