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Spider's cave

Red Haven, Sandend Bay, Aberdeenshire, (Banffshire).

NGR:NJ 56479 66452
WGS84:57.68579, -2.73155
Length:29 m
Vert. Range:Not recorded
Altitude:2 m
Geology:Redhythe Quartzite Member - metamorphic
Tags:Cave, SeaCave
Registry:main

An upper intertidal rift cave running ESE by S, angled 30-40 deg from horizontal coming down from the NE; at the base of a roughly vertical rock face of a promontory on the SW side. It has wonderful naturally sculpted rocks in its entrance geo and up the NE sloped wall inside. There are bronze/orange algal crusts around the entrance and lots of spider's webs in the low light, further up-slope rift. There are small areas of ascomycete (bacterial) white sparkles further in.

The first 8m align with the geo on 118 looking in. The tunnel goes left to 081 for 10m and turns a bit right again to 107 to the end of the main tunnel. There is a short 2.4m branch tunnel angled right, near the end.

The spiders are likely to be meta menardi - but have not been positively identified.

Alternate Names: None recorded.

Notes: Access: clamber down carefully from the cliff near NJ 5651 6646 (just NE of this cave) in the lower half of the tide. Wellies are handy for some of the rock pools and a light is needed for the full extent.

Can be seen from the sea, but a landing place is very tricky - no beach.

Geology: it is very close to a junction with the Arnbath Psammite Formation - which is also metamorphic.

Links and Resources:

This entry was last updated: 2021-04-27 15:24:33

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