A bit more info:
KING?S CAVE [1] NGR NR 884 310 Explorer 361 Blackwaterfoot, Arran
also known as Bruce?s Cave, Doon Cave, Drumidoon Cave and Fingal?s Cave. A 25 feet, L 150 feet.
?Who was it scooped those stony waves?
Who scalped the brows of old Cairngorm
And dug the ever-yawning caves?
T?was I spirit of the storm? (M?Athur)
A large water worn entrance 20 feet high and 10 feet wide scooped out of the white sandstone cliff, leads to a chamber 50 feet wide by 75 feet long. The cave is said to have been occupied by Fingal, Bruce and other Scottish heroes. On the walls are rough sketches of a chase, ascribed with great improbability to the leisure sketches of Bruce and his companions. Other engravings including goats, sheep, cattle, dogs chasing men, men shooting arrows etc are supposed to refer to the hunting exploits of the King(s). Unfortunately most of the engravings have been defaced with modern graffiti and are now barely visible. Fion-gal?s [sic] son was born here.
A 2 foot long groove in the rock, is the exact size of the child?s foot a day after his birth. Anderson claims that James, Lord of Douglas, hid here, followed by Robert the Bruce, who is reputed to have seen the spider here (amongst other places) cf Bruce?s Cave. The iron gate at the entrance is no longer kept locked. The sandstone evidently contains a large proportion of CaCo3 judging by the flowstone formations. In January 1909
an excavation was carried out, finds include boar, deer, and bronze ornaments. There are some more openings in the cliff to the north of King?s Cave but the more impressive are to the south. These are called King?s Stables, Kitchen, Larder etc. They are described from north to south from King?s Cave, all are in white sandstone at an altitude of 25 feet.
1. A tunnel of curving and bulbous proportions going through a projecting headland.
2. A wide archway 50 feet across and about 50 feet high coalesces into an adjacent archway which is 40 feet wide and 30 feet high. Presumably the King?s Stable by the deposit on the floor.
3. An archway 50 feet wide by 20 feet high with some moss covered straw stalactites up to 1 inch in length in the roof. The ashes in the corner suggest that this is the King?s Kitchen.
4. A 40 feet wide archway, 10 feet high. More a shelter than a cave.
KING?S CAVE [1] NGR NR 884 310 Explorer 361 Blackwaterfoot, Arran
AA 219
Anon 1997 Arran and the Clyde Islands / a landscape fashioned by geology. British Geological Survey. 19.
Anderson 1863 105
Anderson 53 says that James, Lord of Douglas hid here, followed by Robert the Bruce, who is reputed to have seen the spider here (amongst other places, cf Bruce?s Cave)
Andrew 180,
Balfour, J, ND The Book of Arran 1
Bede 1861 1 54-56
Blacks 432
Booth, David and Perrott, David 1981 The Shell Book of the Islands of Britain. Guideway/Windward, London. 112
Brotchie, T C F [1911?] Rambles in Arran 38
Craven Pothole Club Jl 5 (2) 94
Downie 66, 70-71
Downie, R Angus 1882 The Islands of the Clyde. The Melven Press, Perth. 18, 20-21, 29.
Drummond, Robert, J, 1947 All Around Scotland. Edinburgh London. The Ettrick Press, Ltd. 53
Fordon, I, ND Highways & Byways in West Highlands. reprinted BC 28 95, 97
Eyre & Todd 313
Eyre & Todd 1931 354-355
GSG 3 (3) 8; GSG Ser 5 5 (5) March 2001 11.
Gordon 1949 375 illus, 381-384.
Hall 1912 29, 31-32
Hall, T S, 1947 Tramping in Arran 3rd ed Falkirk. 112, illus. Caves 21, 22, 23, 97
Hall 148
Hanley, Cliff, ND [1950?] Arran, a Tourist Guide Book. 36, illus. John Menzies & Co, Glasgow. 20-21, 31
Haslett, J 1999 King?s Cave. Scots Mag 149 Nov (11) [505]. A poem about a cave on Arran.
Haswell-Smith 11, 13
Humble, B H 1949 Davie Knows a Howff. Scots Mag 51 (4) July 276-280, 2 photos. Bruce?s Cave, Arran.
MacBride 14, 31 reprinted BC 13 13 and 23 56
MacGregor 1972 161
M?Arthur 83-85
Martin 235, 219 reprinted BC 8 3-4
McKerrow, W S, & Atkins, F B, 1989 2nd ed Isle of Arran / A field guide for students of geology. The Geologists Association. 71
McKirdy, Alan, John Gordon and Roger Crofts 2007 Land of Mountain and Flood / The Geology and Landforms of Scotland. Birlinn 13, 15, 301
McLellan 44,54 (illus), 94 (illus), 95, 116
Mercer, John 1978 The Investigation of the King?s Cave, Isle of Jura, Argyll. Glas Arch Jl 5 44-70. Mercer?s excavations in 1971 revealed a sequence of occupation deposits overlying those of a raised beach. Finds included, in addition to animal, bird and fish bones, 250 worked flints, Iron Age pottery, part of a shale armlet, several bone pins and a 14th century coin. Mercer proposed that the cave had initially been occupied towards the end of the Mesolithic period and again in the Iron Age, with further intermittent occupation during the Middle Ages and later. Indicative of the later is a group of between 100 and 150 Latin Crosses carved on the wall of the cave, which Mercer attributes to the activity of a clandestine Franciscan mission during the first half of the 17th century (ibid 67-68)
Mitchell 37
Mitchell, Sir Arthur 1897 James Robertson?s Tour through some of the Western Islands, etc of Scotland in 1768. PSAS 32 18
Muirhead 154
Muirhead 1947 156
Murray, (1894) Handbook for Scotland, reprinted 1971 David & Charles, Newton Abbot. 328
NCMRS Mem 1968 75
Oldham, Tony 2007 The Remaining Caves of Scotland. Cardigan, published by the author. 32
Pennant 181
Petry, Diana 1974 Time off: Diana Petry goes over the sea to Arran and finds it ideal for peace and fresh air.
(4th August) illus, 29.
Price, G 1997 Cave Conservation Handbook. Caves Scheduled as Ancient Monuments (SAMs) 14-3 King?s Caves and Caves to the south of.
Robertson 1768 Tour of Scotland
Scots Mag 1976 Jan 401
Scott?s Tales of a Grandfather 56 quotes Statistical Account of Scotland [see below]
Statistical Account 1791-99 9 167
Statistical Account of Scotland 5 167 reprinted BC 8 1
Statistical Account 1845 5 55-56
Steers 102
Temperley 182 claims Bruce stayed here in February, 1307.
Thomson 205, 300
Tindall 255-256
Tolan-Smith 7-8
Westwood, Jennifer and Kingshill, Sophie 2009 The Lore of Scotland / A guide to Scottish Legends. 33-34
all pirated, reprinted without permission
