THE Bass Rock has long been a favourite destination for birdwatchers, as it boasts the world’s largest colony of northern gannets, but 50 years ago it reached a new level of fame after a sole visitor sparked a fresh wave of interest in boat trips to the island.

Albie the Albatross set up home among the rock’s more usual residents for the summer season, in what was reported to be the first sighting of such a bird in Britain for more than a century.

The discovery of Albie’s new home was made by accident by a visiting ornithologist, Professor W.H.Thorpe.

The keen birdwatcher was taking photographs of a group of nesting gannets in May 1967 when he looked up from his camera and spotted the black-browed albatross standing just 10 yards away.

It was reported that the professor was so startled by the sight that, after pressing the camera button one more time before the creature took to the skies, he waited until he had returned home and developed the film before revealing what he had seen, for fear that he had been hallucinating.

Lightkeepers on the rock had already seen the unusual seabird but did not realise what it was and, due to bad weather, it was June before anyone else was able to make a trip to the rock.

‘Albie’, as the albatross was quickly nicknamed, turned out to be far from shy and retiring. He was regularly seen soaring around the cliffs and resting among the gannets.

And he was unperturbed by visitors of the two-legged kind, with people regularly reporting walking within eight to 10ft of the bird without it showing any sign of unease.

By the end of June, The Haddingtonshire Courier was reporting that one well-known fisherman was being kept busy taking boat trips to the rock as people flocked to visit Albie and catch a glimpse of the rare bird.

The Courier reported: “Local fisherman, Mr Fred Marr, one of the few people allowed to land people on the Bass, was busy taking parties of ornithologists out, and many were delighted when they managed to get within a few feet of Albie.

“The regular pleasure boat service did a roaring trade as the first of the town’s summer visitors clamoured to go out on the off-chance of seeing one of Britain’s most unusual visitors.

“Many small boats owned by local people also went out with cameras, but landing restrictions made it all but impossible for most to have any hope of taking reasonable pictures without highly specialised telephoto lenses.”

Albatrosses, it was reported, had a wing span of 8ft and rarely ventured out of the southern hemisphere, being native of New Zealand, the Falklands and the Japanese coast.

Mr Marr told the Courier: “As far as I know the albatross has never before been photographed in the northern hemisphere.”

Albie, it was reported at the time, may have been looking for love among the gannets after finding himself alone on the wrong side of the world.

For the next two summer seasons he returned to the Bass but, after being cold-shouldered, he was believe to have moved on to Shetland.

As recently as 2007, 40 years after he arrived off the North Berwick coast, Albie was reported to still be making seasonal trips to Sula Sgeir in the Outer Hebrides as he sought a mate.

Albatrosses can live for 70 years, so Albie could still be out there searching for love half a century on.

In the last few years, sightings have been reported on Heligoland, a small German archipelago in the North Sea.