Is it a mermaid that convinces us today, I doubt it. They were bundled up in a long fish net and rarely if ever exposed. In 1189 King Richard I, keen to raise money for a Crusade, sold a charter which confirmed its control over the fisher “from North Bridge up to Westness”.

Eight-Hundred and twenty-three years later it still looks the same and resembles the anatomy of the typical cockle. Is this perhaps the funny connection some people make with women and the sea. No one knows for sure but you can make your own mind up.