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Covesea 2
Covesea, W of Sculptor's Cave, Moray, (Elginshire).
| NGR: | NJ 17421 70620 |
| WGS84: | 57.71774, -3.38785 |
| Length: | 53 m |
| Vert. Range: | 18 m |
| Altitude: | 11 m |
| Geology: | Hopeman Sandstone Formation |
| Tags: | Cave, SeaCave, Archaeo |
| Registry: | main |
A raised beach seacave with a triangular plan with the apex 192 deg from 3.0 m from the left of the entrance. It thus faces north by east, whereas the caves on either side of it face NE. It is 17m wide and 9.7m high at the entrance - which includes quite a lot of talus pile. Like Giant's Dome, it sits behind a talus ridge. It looks as if (Jan 20) there has been relatively recent spalling of rock around the entrance arch.
Alternative Names: SC2 (Covesea), Middle Dome, Deer cave
Notes: Altitude is above Chart Datum and an estimate of the floor level inside, away from the talus pile on the inside. VR includes a rather rough estimate of the vertical height of the talus pile from entrance to flattish floor.
The above length includes a 26m x 6.4m extra tunnel (Wolf chamber) mentioned in the Canmore site 16280 entry for May-June 2018 excavations.
Note that access is tricky because it is easy to get cut off by the tide and the foreshore is fairly rugged.
Links and Resources:
- OS cave dot about 30m NE
- Canmore Site 16280 in which it is referred to as cave 2; Giant's Dome is cave 1.
- Canmore site 365492 is now devoted to this cave.
- Oblique Aerial is an RCAHMS photo with some of the caves pointed out.
- www.socantscot.org/research-project/the-covesea-caves-project/. Archeological digging has proceeded in the last few years (to 2019) and preliminary results indicate much the same sort of findings as for Sculptor's Cave - but, unlike that cave, it had not been previously dug and so is likely to yield more and better information. This will include minimum age information for this cave.
- Photo 1 Covesea 2/Middle Dome is the middle one.
- Photo 2 shows the entrance arch and what looks like fresh sandstone surfaces - ie bits have fallen off quite recently.
- Photo 3 looks into this cave.
- Photo 4 taken 31 Dec 21 shows plastic sheet laid by archeologists in 2019 on their excavated surface and then back-filled. There is another larger one to the left.
- Photo 5 looking about S by W at the end of the outer cave. The entry to the Wolf Chamber is just to the right of the near vertical joint/crack. It drops down before coming up again.
- Photo 6 was taken sitting in the entrance. The orange items are covering the knees of the photographer. The ceiling of the first part of the Wolf Chamber can be seen. Also, on the right, the orb web of a cave spider - located to catch anything flying through the narrow entrance.
- Photo 7 looking into the entrance passage from inside the Wolf Chamber. Note the fairly large rounded beach pebbles on both sides. There are not many of these on the rest of the sand floor.
- Photo 8 The first part of the Wolf Chamber is about 1.4 m high and 4.2 m wide between the vertical walls. There are low spaces here and there extending about 1m on either side. At the end of what can see in this photo the ceiling gets much lower and then gets back to standing room near the pointed SSW end.
- Photo 9 Looking back at the entrance to the Wolf Chamber. Note the small boulder in this and photo 8.
- Photo 10 Looking S by W under the low ceiling - an easy flat out crawl. Water was dripping slowly from low points here and there, but draining away easily.
- Photo 11 Taken standing beyond the low bit, looking N.
- Photo 12 Looking SSW to the end of the Wolf Chamber.
- Photo 13 Patterns on the R (W) sandstone wall of photo 12.
This entry was last updated: 2022-01-06 21:07:31
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