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No one knows why there is a white stag painted on the rock near to the lighthouse at Blackrocks Point although legend has it that it was because a white stag jumped into the sea to escape hunters after being chased from Spindlestone. Another theory is that it was painted by Italian prisoners of war during the Second World War. Although not shown on the maps, a Stag Rock has been used as a placename here since the late 1800s.

In a letter to the Northumbrian magazine (Issue 107) a lady said her father told that the stag was painted by an artist in 1914. At first, local wildfowlers were worried that it might frighten away their quarry, but that did not seem to happen, and thereafter the stag was given a new coat of paint whenever the lighthouse was painted.