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South Seals Cave

Cruden Bay, Bullers of Buchan, Path-head, Aberdeenshire.

This sea cave may be, as the OS Name Book has it "A very long narrow cave running in as far as the farm-steading of Pothead, (so it is said), but I [a local in the 1850s] cannot say for the truth of this, as you cannot get into it unless with a very narrow canoe." [OS Name Book].

It is long [but not reaching to Pothead], but once you are past the narrows about 17m in, not that narrow - in fact, rather roomy. The narrows (a single narrow point) have water over them with a 4.3 m Equinox Spring Tide and are then navigable in low swell. After that, the tunnel widens and turns a bit left into a long spacious cave. About half way along on the left is a chunky promontory. This has a tunnel past the left side, about 12-15m long. At the end there is a beach (at high tide) which has a pillar towards the left side. From just off that beach you can see light reflected on the N side of the entry.

On 12/3/20 there were a number of seals and more surprisingly to me, shags perching on ledges. It is very dark and I wonder how they can see to fly up to their perches. Some rough soundings suggest that much of the cave beyond the promontory would be beach at low tide.

Peter Buchan says he managed to get in at low tide sometime before 1819:

"We next arrived at what is called the Seals Cave, inhabited only by those animals and the carnivorous cormorants. Its opening or mouth is only twenty inches wide and about four feet high and can only be entered at the ebb of the tide by a very small skiff, launched in on its edge. Its interior is arched above and widens as you proceed up its pebbled beach for some hundred yards, with all the convenience that an exile could wish. .. Ship wrecks are frequent on this coast particularly at the mouth of this cave where lies a sunk rock of great magnitude that has often proved fatal to mariners who have had the misfortune to come in contact with it Surprising as it may seem to some very large logs of foreign wood and of great length have been floated into it and found of late by those whose timidity gave way to their curiosity and who have ventured to explore its hidden treasures It would appear they have floated about in this cave for a considerable time as they are rounded from the square form and their ends worn to a needle point by their friction against its sides or on one another. "

However, it is hard to see how a skiff could fit through a 20 inch wide gap, even on its side and, of course, full of water.

"The following stanzas were written during a visit I [Peter Buchan] paid to this cave when a ship lay there in distress:

The Shipwreck

See how the green unfathom'd ocean, Boils up from the dread gulf below', Upheaved to mountains curl'd in motion, Mantled white by its foaming snow. While rude and angry waves deform, The surface of the peaceful deep, Like cormorants, the rav'nous storm, Devours its prey with haughty sweep, To dark abyss of endless woe, To terminate their fate with those below.

The lurking seal behind the rocks, While raging roar the dashing waves, Reposes safe their fury mocks, When thousands else find watery graves, The lab ring bark with spreading wings, Hopeful at length draws nigh the shore, The brave the gen'rous seaman sings. Soon wives and sweethearts we'll adore. Ah, the false rock the planks now spring, And to the floating wreck the sailors cling.

On high is reared the shaggy mane, Of Neptune's wrath portending hate; Bursting from his too feeble chain, And dooming man to lasting fate. The whirling billows onward press, And echo through the gloomy cave, The hanging cliffs augment distress, To those escap'd the briny wave, Of driving clouds the aspect lours, The peals of thunder roll and rain down pours."

[Annals of Buchan]

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: The internal tunnel has not been counted in the length.

Access: by sea with tide level at, or above 4.3 m ACD which only occurs near the spring or autumn equinox. In practice, the spring equinox is better because the higher of the two high tides is in daytime. It also requires a rather low swell, particularly from the NE.

It may be possible to apply the Peter Buchan method using a SUP, dismounting, sending it through the narrows on its side and then getting on it again. See P7080710r below.

The quickest land approach is from the North from the Bullers of Buchan car park. The routes are accessed by abseil from either of two small quarries on the clifftop edge.

It is not known (16/9/20) whether or not the narrows are navigable at low tide, but it looks unlikely.