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West Hurker Cave

St. Abb's Head, Berwickshire.

The Cave at West Hurker is a NNE-facing cave let into West Hurker rock just below St Abb's Head. The cave is at the head of a short, deep, steep-sided gully, the top of which is visible in the reef intertidally at the surface. The shotline to mark the site should be dropped in this notch as close to the rock as swell permits. The cave is a simple tapering shape approximately 12m long, and 3.6m wide by 3.7m high at the entrance. The floor at the entrance is at a depth of 9.9m BCD and the cave is roughly triangular, on into the reef as a very constricted passage for an undetermined distance. Similarly, for much of the cave's length, the roof was not fully closed over, but continued upwards as a narrow crevice or chimney of undetermined height. From water movements and sou nds apparent within the cave during fieldwork, it is possible that this site is connected by narrow cracks and fissures to the sea on the opposite side of West Hurker Rock. The tunnel floor consists of scoured mobile cobbles banked up in the entrance area for the first 2 to 3m, but beyond this continues as a flat bed of muddy sand sloping up 2.3m to the rear at a depth of 7.6m BCD. The walls showed evidence of scour, and wave surge was also apparent. [rpt 069 with minor corrections]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: Access: by sea and by diving only.