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Deil's Kettle (NE)

Bowduns, S of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, (Kincardineshire).

A seacave system consisting of two fairly short tunnels, running SW/NE side by side, separated by an initially vertical wall with two internal 'windows'; one a metre or so above MHWS and second near the ceiling and visible only from outside the east chamber. The separating wall twists clockwise (looking SW) and also curves - so that it is convex on the SE side and concave on the NW side.

There are two blowholes, one at the end of each tunnel/chamber.

The entrance to this SE chamber widens inside - see photo 7. It is possible to see diagonally through this, the S internal window in the dividing wall, through the SW blowhole to the cliff behind - see photo 8. The end of this sight-line is above the entrance to Bowduns N (3).

This tunnel opens immediately into a roughly square plan chamber. On the left there is the widened entrance, mentioned above. On the right two internal windows through the wall dividing this chamber from the NW one. At the back is a near vertical wall and at the left side of this, a rectangular blowhole going up vertically.

From the land above, the ground slopes down to it - a much smaller version of the gloup of Bowduns N (2), 50m to the W.

The entrance is open to waves and swell from the NE, and if this is large enough, every so often the wave action is deflected upwards through the blowhole, in much the same way as is seen against a harbour wall. This gives the appearance of a spout from a geyser - see photo 6.

The blowhole is also a small gloup.

Alternative Names: Devil's Kettle (NE), Bowduns (1) NE

Notes: Access: By sea eg S from Stonehaven harbour

By land: The blowhole at NO 88362 84536 can be reached by leaving the coastal path at NO 87924 84552 and walking down the edge of the field and then on rough paths to the N side of Bowduns.

As noted below, the 1st Ed 25in OS labels the long cave whose entrance is at NO 88321 84543 'Deil's Kettle'. However, that is inconsistent with the Namebook description below in two respects:

1) In stormy weather, there is no visible tendency for spray to come up through the gloup of that cave. Unlike the two blowholes of this cave, there is no wall at the end of the gloup to deflect waves upward. In addition, the mouth of that cave is very much less open to swell than the mouths of this cave.

2) "A cave in the cliff opposite the Bowdens" can easily be applied to the SW blowhole of this cave, but is hard to reconcile with the location of the long cave at NO 88321 84543. The latter is on the main block of Bowduns and not on any opposite cliff.

The length is that of the two tunnels added together.