Jock Muldoon's Cave

A raised beach seacave facing approximately NW. Located in a portion of raised beach cliff-face beside the E edge of a waste pile from the quarry. The entrance is wide - 5m and fairly low 3.7m. There is old brickwork at the N side of the entrance and the bottom two courses of a wall across the width of the cave at 11.2 m inside. The floor is fairly level going slightly down toward the wall, then slightly up to a mild ridge at 22.2 m inside. Beyond that is a steep (est 40 deg) down-slope turning a little right for 8.7m, then a bit left for 2.2m and an extension 4.5 m straight on, to a slope of solid rock. Hard left is another extension for 6.9m which is the sloped space between the original wall of the seacave on the right (NE) and the repose angle of infilled dusty material. It appeared from the clean appearance of the floor from about 15m onward that the end of the cave has been infilled with a mix of rock dust and rockchips and lumps up to half brick size. It is not obvious how this was done as there is no path to the cave entrance which would take a wheelbarrow, let alone anything bigger.

The walls and ceiling looked consistent with a once active seacave, without significant spalling from it, which is so evident in Giant's Dome and Covesea 2. It gives the impression that the cave might well have been of comparable original size before infill.

Notes: Access: From the coastal path from Hopeman go past Clashach Cove (now designated Cove Bay) and follow the quarry road left. Make your way down a footpath which goes down quite steeply from NJ 16250 70303. Alternatively park at NJ 15970 69328 on your way towards Hopeman from Lossiemouth, and walk in along the quarry road.

Links and Resources:

OS dot
Canmore Site 318072. This has a report from 2018 which mentions 19th century graffiti and the brickwork, but does not mention the inner (SE) end of the cave at all.
Length survey by Nigel Feilden 21/11/20.
Page 38 of "Hopeman 1805-2005" says that Jock Muldoon lived somewhat intermittently in this cave in the early part of the 20th century.
Page 39 of "Hopeman 1805-2005" says that he served 'Moosy tae' to visitors.
Photo 1 shows the cave entrance from the sea. looking at it SE ward.
Photo 2 entrance from as far away as you can get on the level.
Aerial showing the cave location relative to the quarry road, the path down to the shore and the the raised beach cliff-face.
Photo 3 left (N) side of wall beside entrance. Just above centre is an engraved line drawing of a two masted gaff rigged sailing ship with 2 square topsails and a long bowsprit headed right.
Photo 4 shows a third sailing vessel with one mast and a bowsprit. On the cliff wall a few metres right of the entrance.
Photo 5 looking at N side of entrance showing remains of stonework.
Photo 6 S wall near entrance showing graffiti.
Photo 7 looking inwards (SE) from entrance. The footing of a cross wall is at 11.2 m in. The highest point of the sand ridge is about 22 m in.
Photo 8 looking about SE, down the slope towards the end of the cave. To the right of the headtorch beam is a 4.5 m extension SSE. Note the mixture of sand and small lumps of sandstone - consistent with waste from cutting operations. The following photo was taken from out of sight at bottom left.
Photo 9 looking about N at the space between the N side of the cave and the loose fill as described in photo 7. The rock floor of the cave is probably several metres below this point, which is already an estimated 7.6 m below the fairly level floor of most of the cave.

This entry was last updated: 2022-09-06 19:26:06

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NGR:	NJ 16275 70238
WGS84:	57.71410, -3.40695
Length:	44 m
Vert. Range:	11 m
Altitude:	25 m
Geology:	Hopeman Sandstone Formation
Tags:	Cave, SeaCave, Archaeo, SSSI
Registry:	main

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