Hole o' Naaversgill (N1)

North entrance to the east branch of a 'Y' plan tunnel system running from North Naaversgill to South Naaversgill south-west through the Burrista promontory. Intertidal.

Notes: Length is 110 m using the NGRs of N1 and S entrances + 59 m estimated on the basis of N Thomson's sketch plan.

Links and Resources:

1st Ed OS 6in of Fairisle. Shows this as 'Natural Arch'. Current OS shows a double dotted tunnel.
Rpt 1145 Harries, D.B., Purcell, A., Moore, C.G., Lyndon A.R., Porter, J.S., Saunders, G.R. and Hume, C.L. 2024. Distribution mapping and baseline monitoring survey of sea caves around Fair Isle. NatureScot Research Report 1145.
Map 13 shows this entrance as NS23(N). P173 of FI Caves (GSG version) an annexe of Report 1145.
Sketch plan of cave system. Report 1145 - FI Caves (GSG vs) p 176.
Photo 1 looks about SSW to the north entrances. The one arrowed is this one, N1. Report 1145 - FI Caves (GSG vs) p 174.
Photo 2 looks about SSW to the north entrances; zoomed view. Report 1145 - FI Caves (GSG vs) p 175.
Photo 3 shows what the photographer, Mike Pennington, calls the 'Spootin Hole'. A careful look shows that this N1 entrance is on the left, and that the 'spootin' is coming from N2. This could be caused by 'blow back' of air compressed by wave action from this side, or by 'blow through' of air compressed by wave action from the south entrance. The latter seems more likely as there does not appear to be much wave action in this photo - apart from the 'spootin'.

This entry was last updated: 2026-02-02 09:45:36

Errors or omissions in this information? Submit corrections/additions/comments for this entry to the registrars.

NGR:	HZ 20293 72659
WGS84:	59.53935, -1.64293
Length:	126 m
Vert. Range:	5 m
Altitude:	1 m
Geology:	Ward Hill Sandstone Formation - sandstone and dolomitic siltstone
Tags:	Cave, Arch, SeaCave
Registry:	main

Other Sites Within 500m