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Loch Borralie Cave

Durness, Loch Borralie, Sutherland.

A phreatic tube midway up a cliff overlooking Loch Borralie. 20m of tight muddy crawl (classic keyhole passage within dolomitic limestone) ends at a 'chamber' barely large enough to turn around in, saving an awkward feet-first return leg.

Alternative Names: Lesser Northern Egg Timer, Egg Timer

Notes: Removable chichen-wire is in place across the entrance to prevent wildlife entering the cave, introduced after a badger was encountered at close-quarters within, and entrails became common after use by other mammals (probably stoats or weasels).

The late Colin Coventry discovered this cave in 1992 when it was no more than 1m long and after some careful digging through peat and silt, it is now 20m.

This is a cave of national significance. So far the cave has yielded fragmentary human (yielding radiocarbon dates of 4734 +/- 31 yrs BP and 4875 +/- 32 yrs BP; i.e. Neolithic), grey wolf, red fox, pig, sheep, rabbit, wildcat (dated to 2917 +/- 30 yrs BP), and badger but most crucially the oldest Eurasian lynx so far discovered in Scotland (dated to 7258 +/- 24 years BP). These bones are in the collection of National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh. Some mammalian teeth were excavated by Colin Coventry and are also in the museum collection: they have been identified as belonging to grey wolf, domestic dog, red fox and grey seal. The existing sediment in the cave contains numerous fragments of bone, and two cockle shells were also discovered recently. This cave needs to be more thoroughly investigated, and visitors are asked not to dig in the cave.

Following the uncovering of bones at the site, which occured at a similar time to discovery of the bone-bearing chamber in Uamh an Claonaite that was named 'The Great Northern Time Machine', the original discoverer (CC) facetiously named this site 'Lesser Northern Egg Timer'. Whilst the name 'Loch Borralie Cave' was introduced for the purposes of scientific articles, 'Egg Timer' still receives frequent use.

Hydrographic Feeds: None

Hydrographic Resurgences: None