Scotland

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Regions \ Scotland

Glossary of Gaelic/English terms

General Introdiction

Historical Aspects

1 Introduction
2 Geology
3 Areas
4 References
5 External Links

Introduction

Generic Introduction needed - following to be moved to relevant area as necessary. General Tidy Up required

THE CAVES OF SOUTH WESTERN SCOTLAND

Dumfries-shire, Galloway, Kirkcudbrightshire & Wigtownshire

Wherever you go in south west Scotland, you cannot easily escape the past, for it is all around you, and the deep, ice-gouged valleys have supported man for perhaps 10,000 years, from the Old Stone Age onwards. This was the land of the Galwyddel [Welsh: Gaels meaning stranger], and they left faint clues for us to wonder at, age-old stones, burial cairns, forts and caves, relics of ancient religions and forgotten battles. They left us one of our names, too, for "Galloway" is derived from Galwyddel.

The first wanderers seem to have congregated around Luce Bay, settling along the 25 foot raised beach. They have left us flint knives and arrowheads, as well as marine molluscs in their caves and middens. By and large, these people of the Old Stone Age stayed on the shores, and in the river valleys, for they could not conquer the great hills clad in oak and Scots Pine.

Cave habitation extended well in Bronze and Iron Age times, and St Medan’s and St Ninian’s Caves were inhabited in the 8th century, whilst the most notorious inhabitant in the 16th century was Sawney Beane and his family. In the 1 9th century, any cave on or near the coast is a natural warehouse for `duty free’ goods. See also Smuggler’s Caves. Even in the early part of the 20th century, some of these caves were still inhabited cf Tinker’s or Tramp’s Caves.

Geology

GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Scotland is not noted for its caves. This is partly because most of the great watersheds are on non-carbonate rocks, and mainly due to of glaciations which covered the country during the ice age, scouring many of the softer rocks and infilling any pre-existing cave entrances. It is to the coast that we have to look today for the largest number and variety of caves. With over 10,000 miles of sea-shore which includes 758 islands, time and tide have eroded a variety of caves, caves which have been formed in most types of rock from the soft limestones of Durness to the hard gabbros and basalts of Skye.

The limestones of the north western highlands are all of the Cambrian age. The Cambrian or Durness limestone has been laid down in a thin band stretching for 120 miles south south west from Loch Eriboll to the Sleat of Skye. This outcrop varies in width from a mile to nearly 8 miles in the Assynt district. In the south of Scotland there are extensive beds of Carboniferous limestone, but these are too thin to support many caves.

Areas

References

Scotland

For all you need to know on the caves of Scotland:

THE REMAINING CAVES OF SCOTLAND excluding: Appin, Applecross, Assynt, Caithness, Hebrides, Kintyre, Mid-Argyle, Orkneys, St Kilda, Schichallion, Shetland, Skye, Southern Highlands and South Western Scotland, and Sutherland compiled by Tony Oldham 2006 63 pp surveys etc. This book has been published to bring the original New Caves of Scotland up-to date and to record the caves which are not described in any of the other books mentioned below. To avoid duplication, the caves of Appin etc have been omitted. To make this book more compact, and, hopefully, more readable, the references have been omitted. These are available as a supplementary volume called, “Caves of Scotland: A Bibliography”. To save the trees, both books are available on a CD-ROM. SB

CAVES OF SCOTLAND A BIBLIOGRAPHY by Tony Oldham January 2004, revised December 2006 160 pp. A companion volume to “The New Caves of Scotland” as it includes caves which got left out. Fingal’s Cave takes up 3 pages. References include such exotica as the Mombassa Times, Kenya and “Is Fingal’s Cave artificial?”. Needless to say, it is not. SB also available on a floppy disc or a CD. or on the net: http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/arb/scotland/caves_biblio.html

SCOTLAND CD. To save the trees, shelf space and because it is quicker than photocopying, I have put “The New Caves of Scotland” and “Caves of Scotland a Bibliography” onto a CD. Not wishing to waste disk space I added Alan Jeffreys’s Index to the Grampian Speleological Group Bulletin from 1963 to 2001 and my holiday snaps, or to be more precise, photos of some quite small Scottish caves. For good measure there are photos of a visit to the Pibble lead mine [Creetown] and Harelow stone mine [near Greta Green]. The CD in a Jewel Case

THE CAVES OF NORTHERN BRITAIN (Caithness, Orkneys, Outer Hebrides, Shetland and Sutherland) by Tony Oldham 2006 47 pp, 19 illus (maps and surveys etc). The first Caves of Scotland was published in 1975 and since then many more caves have come to light [no pub intended]. To cover each area in detail it have been necessary to publish a series of regional guides. This is the latest in the series and incorporates the most recent literature and discoveries.. SB

THE CAVES OF SOUTH WESTERN SCOTLAND by Tony Oldham 2005 28 pp, 10 colour photos, including front cover. This is a detailed gazetteer covering the area Dumfries-shire, Galloway, Kircudbrightshire and Wigtownshire. This area is famous for its inhabited caves which date from Bronze Age times. St Medan’s and St Ninian’s Caves were inhabited in the 8th century, whilst the most notorious inhabitant in the 16th century was Sawney Beane and his family who is reputed to have robbed and eaten over a 1000 travellers. The only caving guide to this little known caving area. Laminated covers.

a companian book is also available: THE MINES OF SOUTH WESTERN SCOTLAND by Tony Oldham 2005. 35 pp, 5 surveys cum location maps, 18 colour photos including colour front and rear covers. The mines of south-western Scotland are virtually unknown to most of the inhabitants of England and Wales. In many ways it is a lost and forgotten area. An area of wild beauty, noted more for its agriculture and scenery than for its industries. It has never been of great importance as a centre of mining; nevertheless the scattered occurrences of metalliferous ores that have been worked from time to time are relatively poorly covered in literature. The two main works by G V Wilson (1921) and James R Foster-Smith (1967) are long out of print and difficult to obtain. This present work hopes to overcome this problem by recording those deposits, which are known to exist, and which have been worked or investigated in past times. There is no active mining in the area at present, though some small-scale mining continued as late as 1954. Laminated covers.

THE CAVES OF KINTYRE and Mid Argyll together with a supplement to the mines of the area by Tony Oldham second revised and much enlarged edition August 2004 56 pp 40 colour photos, including front and rear covers. This is a detailed gazetteer covering the area from the Mull of Kintyre to just north of Oban in Scotland. Laminated covers.