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Lauriston Castle Cave

Kaim of Mathers, Kirkton of St. Cyrus, Aberdeenshire.

An upper intertidal rift sea cave which faces WSW, penetrating into the W side of a rocky promontory near the E end of St Cyrus sands. Its width at the bottom of the roughly triangular entrance is 3.0 m. It snakes slightly as you go in and gets gradually lower and narrower, the last 5m or so being a crawl. The floor is very slightly sloping beach sand.

It is used by doves.

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: Access: Park beyond the St Cyrus church cemetery, walk down the excellent staired path and go to the E end of the beach in the top half of the tide.

"Sea cave at the north end of St Cyrus beach. Supposed to be connected to Lauriston Castle (about 1 mile inland). Rehash of piper legend has sound of pipes below castle hearth." ref 5 [Probably conflation of modern castle with older castle remains of 'Kaim of Maithers on cliff top immediately above the caves.]

"A musket [actually a rifle] was found 'sticking out of the sand' in a sea cave by SNH warden Mr A. Turner (5/6/08). Collected from finder by IAGS (11/6/08). The wooden butt does not survive. It is the remains of a Fusil Modèle 1874 Gras rifle made by Manufacture d'Armes Saint Etienne, 11 x 59.5R calibre." see ref 6 for more.

It is surprising that a French Army rifle from the late 19th century was found in this cave in 2008 and also that it was sticking up. How did it get there ?