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Barricaded Cave

Whiting Ness, Arbroath, Angus, (Forfarshire).

Barricaded Cave, 83 meters beyond (E of) Web Cave.

Enter through a squeeze to a narrow initial section roughly 0.6 meters wide, 1.8 meters high. There is a 4.5 meter vertical drop 5 meters beyond the entrance. Lower chambers total around 55 meters in length. Tapers gradually from a maximum of around 6 meters high and 3 meters wide just beyond the drop to 0.5 metres high and wide at the end. In the central section of the cave the floor is covered with deep soft sand. Contains some of the best examples of flowstone formations in the area. After heavy rain water can be heard running at the very end of the cave.

From UK Caving Forum: "There were a couple of nasty old nylon half inch ropes that were best avoided at the drop to the lower level but one of them came undone recently. There was also the remains of a ladder but its only got one rung left. There is an old log ladder hiding behind it. If its dry its easy enough to bridge your way up and down but if its wet it can be very slippery. If in doubt I chuck a couple of climbing nuts in the cracks on the floor (3 and a 5 I think) and attach a short length of rope. There are a couple of carved arched footsteps and helpful rectangular shaped handhold at the entrance.

I (DK) have loads of photographs of the inside of the cave including some "graffiti" that goes back to the 1800's if they are of any interest. There are a couple posted on my flickr -"

Alternative Names: Stalagmite Cave, Arbroath Cave [3]

Notes: Location from Iain Greig 18 Aug 20

Length and VR based on Description. Alt is a NigelF guesstimate and is ACD.

Oldham never put a name on it other than #3, but the name 'Barricaded Cave' specifically appears in the text and map of Brodie (1904). Hay (1876) also makes reference with an accurate detailed description, but never gives a name.