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Gaylet Pot Sea Cave (S Entrance)

S of Castlesea Bay, S of Auchmithie, Arbroath, Angus, (Forfarshire).

South entrance to the sea cave or subterranean passage leading to Gaylet Pot. This runs N by W. this entrance is 14.3 m wide.

A mostly subtidal cave tunnel running from this sea entrance to the much smaller N entrance which opens into the base of the S end of Gaylet Pot. It is straight enough to be able to see the other end. Going N from this S entrance, the tunnel remains wide and high for 30 m or so where a large rectangular block sticks out about 8 m from the W side and continues another 25-30 m before going back to the original line. On the E side, the tunnel widens somewhat at sea level, and much more higher up. The E wall here is not at all smooth, with some quite large V plan alcoves in it. It comes back roughly to its original line about half way along. The ceiling is also lower, but continues to be rather horizontal. The N entrance is shorter and narrower than the S entrance; is intertidal and triangular. Just S of the N entrance, on the E side, there is a low extension with a rectangular plan about 10 m E and 12 m parallel to the tunnel axis. It has two small tunnels in the SE and NE corners. The SE one (photo 8) appears to run roughly E and - at a tide level of 4.5 m ACD was nearly swamped and nothing could be seen of its length. The NE one runs N (photo 9), probably at least 4 m, and sounded as if it has a pebble beach. There may be a low tide tunnel in the W wall, about 2/3 of the way from S to N. Noises were heard coming out of a narrow crack which suggested a hidden volume.

See also Gaylet Pot entry. It is one of the longer single tunnels on this Angus + Aberdeenshire east coast.

Alternate Names: Arbroath cave [30]

Notes: Access: by sea from Arbroath

Altitude is ACD - measured 19/7/23.

Length is 117 m between entrances + 10 + 4 for side tunnels. The 4 is an an estimate and can likely be more accurately measured at low tide.