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Dirk Hatteraick's Cave

Barholm, Heughs of Barholm, Kirkcudbrightshire.

Sea Cave on the north-east coast of Wigtown Bay near Kirkdale at the west end of the Heughs of Barholm.

A narrow slot at the end of as long defile below overhanging trees, accessible at the base of the sea cliff from the shore.

The coast is mostly flat and sandy, but towards the south-eastern extremity becomes rocky, bold, high, and precipitous, and there is torn with fissures and pierced with caverns, some of them offering romantic features, and one at Ravenshall Point bearing the name of ` Dirk Hatteraick's Cave.' [Groome]

A rough walk over a boulder strewn beach and round a rocky point brought us to a nook in the high bank above the shore in which some 35' up was visible a small aperture which gave access to the cave [Dirk Hatteraick's Cave] believed to be that immortalised by Scott in Guy Mannering. So narrow is the aperture that a full grown man can only with difficulty squeeze himself sideways between the opposing rock faces, and the entrance is further rendered difficult by the steep talus of soil and stone filling the lower part of the chasm and down which an intruder has to "slither" to reach the floor of the cave some 14' below. The cave is some 33' in length with a narrow projection extending some 10' further, and has an average floor width of from 4' to 5'. diminishing upwards. Along the left wall from the entrance are tiers of small rectangular recesses, resembling pigeon nests in a dovecot but believed to have been formed for the storage of bottles of spirits by the smugglers. In rear of this arrangement of bins or nests there is a small inner recess. The dimensions of the "nests" are about 10" x 6". In its present condition it would have been impossible to convey any object larger than a very small keg or bottle through the entrance. [Alexander Curle]

'The cave is not easy to enter. It begins with a narrow slit in the rock shaped like an isosceles triangle, the floor is somewhere about twenty feet below, and you look down from the opening into deep darkness'. 'For the first yard or so you can keep yourself erect, but must then stretch yourself on the earth and slide or wriggle down the chimney until you are able to rise without knocking your head against the rock'. [Highways and Byways]

There's two ropes of different thickness to aid your descent. I got about two yards and decided against. [jimzglebeblog]

It is suggested for their own safety visitors should not rely on these ropes but bring their own equipment.

Alternative Names: Dirk Hatteraich 's Cave, Meg Merrilee 's Cave, Barholm Cove

Notes: Do not confuse with other Dirk Hatteraick's Cave (aka Torrs Cave).

See also Kaa's Cave, Whig's Hole, Ravenshall Point Caves and Corbie's Cove.

Dirk Hatteraick (aka Jans Janson) is a fictional character from the novel 'Guy Mannering' written by Sir Walter Scott. He is generally depicted (as on the Scott Monument in a stutue by William Birnie Rhind) as 'an old sea-dog', gruff-looking yet jaunty, with a prodigious moustache, loose long cravat and wearing a knitted bonnet. He has a curved sword and high boots.

A noted smuggler, "half Manks [sic Manx], half Dutchman, half devil", Dirk Hatteraick is "the terror of all the excise and custom house cruisers". A seafarer with "a countenance bronzed by a thousand conflicts with the north-east wind... his frame prodigiously muscular, strong, and thickset", he has none of the "careless frolicsome jollity" of a sailor on shore, but wears a constant "surly and even savage scowl".

The character was apparently based on an actual foreign smuggler, Jack Yawkins, a Dutchman who commanded a noted fast lugger, the Black Prince, and earned a wonderful reputation for his daring and Successful ventures, a fact that Sir Walter acknowledged in a letter to Mr. Traine, the historian of the Isle of Man. [manxnotebook]