SW Tronach Cave

A smaller cave than Tronach Cave, and supratidal, facing WSW. It has a fairly tall, narrow entrance with a layer of large, sharp edged boulders just outside. There is a drop of about a metre as you go inside and it widens to about 3 m and stays roughly at that until 19 m in, when it narrows and lowers to a kneeling crawl for the rest of the tunnel. The left wall is the underside of a layer in the Cullen quartzite, and the line of the tunnel follows the strike of that layer. This turns about 20 degrees right (W) over the tunnel length.

Notes: Access: By land from the coast path down onto the beach immediately north east. After Tronach Cave, it is necessary to work around a rib and then a fairly large rock-pool to arrive at the position from which photo 2 was taken.

Links and Resources:

There is an OS cave dot 7m away from the above NGR.
Photo 1 shows Tronach Cave in the centre and this smaller cave to the right of it. Taken on 18/7/24.
Photo 2 looking up slope over the large boulders to the entrance. The near boulderss are blackened by tar lichen and the further ones have some yellow lichen crust and pale green/blue foliate lichens. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 3 entrance from closer. The floor cannot be seen because it is about a metre lower than the boulders you can see. The rock with a boulder on top bears 287 degrees, so the cave tunnel faces about 290 (nearly WSW) at its entrance. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 4 looking out through the entrance while standing on the floor mentioned under photo 3. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 5 as photo 4, but taken from about 5 m further inside. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 6 looking inward from near where photo 5 was taken. The tunnel narrows and lowers on the left (E) at about 18 m in. The wider part is 3 m wide and 1.9 m floor to ceiling. The left wall is the underside of the quartzite layer whose dip is to the left (E). The strike curves right (W). Note the beach rounded pebbles. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 7 the W wall at about 16-17 m inside. The white teardrop shape is an egg sac of a cave spider (meta menardi). There were no obvious webs seen on 22/2/25.
Photo 8 looking back towards the entrance from 16-17 m inside. The light at the far end is reflected from the entrance. This illustrates how the tunnel curves - left (W) looking this way. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 9 looking inwards (SSE) along the kneeling crawl part of the tunnel. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 10 the end of the tunnel. There was a clear sound of trickling water here, but no sign of flowing water. Presumably somewhere in the bed of pebbles. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 11 looking towards the entrance from the position of photo 10. There was not room to easily turn around. Taken 22/2/25.
Photo 12 an attempt to photograph golden sparkles up on the west side. Same location as photos 10 & 11. There were no obvious silver sparkles, but lots of area covered by the whitish deposit which seems to be left after silver sparkles have been sparkling.

This entry was last updated: 2025-02-25 18:29:51

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NGR:	NJ 47664 68500
WGS84:	57.70325, -2.87981
Length:	26 m
Vert. Range:	4.2 m
Altitude:	8 m
Geology:	Cullen Quartzite Formation - quartzite, psammite & semipelite
Tags:	Cave, SeaCave
Registry:	main

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