SMOO CAVE TOURS WILL OPEN AT THE BEGINING OF APRIL 2022 (WEATHER PERMITTING). |
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April 2022
The large volume of water entering the cave following melting of the 'lambing snow' has meant that I have not been able to conduct tours for the past few days. I have made use of this spare time by searching for caves elsewhere across the Durness area. This was met with success near the southern end of the Kyle of Durness where two new caves were discovered. Although short at the moment, future removal of inner blockages should allow for entry into visible extensions. Further extension of a site closer to Smoo Cave was also made, which is particularly interesting as it trends towards Smoo Cave.
Happy New Year 2021
Happy New Year from the Smoo Crew. With no tours last year we are looking forward to starting the tours again this year. Have a great 2021 and I'll hopefully see you in the cave.
Fraser Eadie.
Fraser Eadie.
Smoo Cave Tour summer 2020
update.
As things stand at the moment Smoo Cave Tours will not be running the inner cave tour this summer. It's with deep regret that after running the tours every summer for over 30 years now that we will be unable to safely operate this summer. Our number 1 commitment has always been YOUR safety. It is impossible to run our intimate tour safely at the moment so although financially crippling, this has to be the decision.
Thanks to everyone for their generous donations on our Just Giving page. We are almost half way to our target and hopefully we'll make our target by the end of the summer. I will be in the cave daily from 10am till late to answer any questions you have about the cave. The cave is open, you'll be able to walk through and see the waterfall cascading into the second chamber, see the deadly Scottish piranhas feeding and I'll be doing walking tours in the main chamber. I look forward to seeing you all, the caves going nowhere so hopefully we'll be taking you on the inner cave tour again in the not to distant future. I'll mostly be at the small shed at the bottom of the stairs so come up and say hello, stay safe, remember to social distance and enjoy your summer holiday.
Fraser Eadie,
Smoo Cave Tours, GSG, SCRO
Thanks to everyone for their generous donations on our Just Giving page. We are almost half way to our target and hopefully we'll make our target by the end of the summer. I will be in the cave daily from 10am till late to answer any questions you have about the cave. The cave is open, you'll be able to walk through and see the waterfall cascading into the second chamber, see the deadly Scottish piranhas feeding and I'll be doing walking tours in the main chamber. I look forward to seeing you all, the caves going nowhere so hopefully we'll be taking you on the inner cave tour again in the not to distant future. I'll mostly be at the small shed at the bottom of the stairs so come up and say hello, stay safe, remember to social distance and enjoy your summer holiday.
Fraser Eadie,
Smoo Cave Tours, GSG, SCRO
Spring '20
All we need now are a few more rainbows to accompany the new rock art...
Easter Lockdown.
Here are some images from an empty Smoo Cave. With the NC500 shut down the village feels more like it's December than Easter. Plenty time to clean the bridge and walkways. There is also the daily task of picking up rubbish that has blown down and washed in from the sea (never-ending plastic). No bags of dog poo though.
Winter around Smoo Cave
Storms combining with high spring tides saw waves entering the cave, part of the walkway at the entrance to the cave being washed away and some epic floods due to the volume of water and snow melt coming over the waterfall.
January' 20
Happy new year everyone. New Years resolution for 2020 is as always... 'just keep digging'. I'm now trying to open up the sump stream in the New Dig and hopefully I can squeeze through the existing water exit and find a massive new chamber. Digging has been going well, so much so that a new pick axe and a couple of rock hammers have been replaced. The replacements arrived yesterday and are still all shiny and new. Not for long though.
This Friday Smoo Cave will be featured on CHANNEL 5 at 8pm on Susan Calman's Secret Scotland programme. This was filmed during the summer and it was great fun meeting Susan and the crew. Anyway, back to the glamorous life of digging for me.
This Friday Smoo Cave will be featured on CHANNEL 5 at 8pm on Susan Calman's Secret Scotland programme. This was filmed during the summer and it was great fun meeting Susan and the crew. Anyway, back to the glamorous life of digging for me.
GSG annual dinner in Durness
This weekend saw cavers arriving in Durness from across the UK. The Grampian Speleological Group annual dinner was held in the Smoo Cave Hotel this year. On Saturday I got some help in the New Dig with around 200kg of spoil being removed with help from Iain Greig (Smoo Crew) and Goon, aka Alan Jeffreys, our caving club founder and chairman. We then headed out into the hills of Durness looking for new caves with the help of local lad Dylan Mitchell pictured top centre coming out of Web Cave. Just a few meters away from Web Cave Dylan discovered a new, short, still to be named cave. After the dinner on Saturday night we had an early start on Sunday morning carrying a pallet through pouring rain to Black Rock Cave which now covers the cave entrance. It was also an opportunity to go into the cave and witness the fast flowing water gushing through it after a lot of heavy rain.
That's the tours finished for this season. I'm now looking forward to a winter of digging and who knows what we will discover. Thanks to everyone who came on the tour in this year.
That's the tours finished for this season. I'm now looking forward to a winter of digging and who knows what we will discover. Thanks to everyone who came on the tour in this year.
October '19 - Grand Tours of Scotland's Lochs
Smoo Cave has been featuring on TV documentaries yet again, this time on BBC's Grand Tours of Scotland's Lochs following a visit from Paul Murton and his team. In this episode he takes a visit not just through the cave itself but also Balnakeil where he visits the grave of Durness' most infamous murderer who reportedly threw 18 poor souls down the Smoo Cave waterfall ~400 years ago.
For those of you with access to the BBC iPlayer, you can catch the episode at the following link (Smoo features from the 15 minute mark onwards):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000990r/grand-tours-of-scotlands-lochs-series-3-6-lost-in-a-landscape
For those of you with access to the BBC iPlayer, you can catch the episode at the following link (Smoo features from the 15 minute mark onwards):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000990r/grand-tours-of-scotlands-lochs-series-3-6-lost-in-a-landscape
July '19 - Sean Batty STV Crew
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Sean Batty and the STV crew came on the tour a couple of weeks ago. Below is the link to their film which will air live on Monday 8th July. It was an absolute pleasure working with Sean and the crew.
https://player.stv.tv/episode/3sv2/seans-scotland
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June '19 - Colin Coventry
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11/06/1957 - 29/01/2019
We have not been updating recently as Colin became seriously unwell at the end of last season, ultimately passing away at the end of January. Colin started running the tours in Smoo Cave 35 years ago. I knew Colin for 25 years and quickly caught the caving bug. Working and caving with him most days for the last 5 years whether running tours or digging in the winter time. Colin's energy and enthusiasm was infectious. We went on many caving trips together including Britain's largest chamber: the Frozen Deep (Reservoir Hole, Somerset). Three weeks ago we had a celebration of his life with family, friends and fellow cavers who travelled far and wide. During the ceremony we unveiled a memorial plaque for Colin which can be seen next to the car park in Smoo Cave. We had a keg of his favourite beer Stella Artois, whisky, venison and local fish chowder. Along with family, friends and fellow cavers his ashes were spread down the waterfall at Smoo Cave and at Elephant Cave, which was Colin's favourite place to contemplate life, the universe and everything. The event was a great success, raising £1,000 that was donated to Cancer Research. The New Dig mission continues using all the knowledge which Colin has passed on to me and we are now digging to find Colin's cave, which once found will be named after him. - Fraser |
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June '18 - (Another) New Cave at Durness!
The Smoo Crew division of the GSG has discovered a significant new limestone cave 4 miles south of Durness (called Uamh nan Clachan Dubhan). A detailed survey has been carried out that has proven over 150m of open passage, excluding potential extensions through a bit of interior design, making it the 7th longest freshwater cave in Sutherland. The cave consists of an inclined entrance slope that leads into a wide section of dry upper breakdown passage, with a further drop through boulders revealing an extensive stream section within clean bedrock that varies from 'comfortable walking' to 'hands and knees' size. This makes it the longest accessible section of cave passage around Durness.
This is an exciting new find in a limestone abundant area where only short and tight tubes have been discovered before. What is particularly encouraging is that the passage trends northwards into the hillside where there is a thick section of limestone that extends all the way from Black Rock to Smoo Cave!
Watch this space for further updates...
This is an exciting new find in a limestone abundant area where only short and tight tubes have been discovered before. What is particularly encouraging is that the passage trends northwards into the hillside where there is a thick section of limestone that extends all the way from Black Rock to Smoo Cave!
Watch this space for further updates...
7th January- Loch Borralie Dig
This is the fifth attempt from last year to dig at Loch Borralie cave, as the cave fills up very easily with water when it rains, and takes a long time to drain out afterwards. However, the rain has let up long enough for us to reach the dig site again. Upon crawling into the dig site, we encountered around two inches of recent muddy material brought in over the last year, which we cleared after a few hours of work, reaching the reddish clay sediment where many of the bones found in this site were situated.
While digging, we encountered the bones of several small vertebrates, which have been sent to the University of the Highlands and Islands College in Orkney, where we hope they may be identified. If they are on the same timescale as previous bones found inside this dig (i.e lynx, 7600 years BP), they may have been the prey of at least two already identified predators, the other being a wolf.
While digging, we encountered the bones of several small vertebrates, which have been sent to the University of the Highlands and Islands College in Orkney, where we hope they may be identified. If they are on the same timescale as previous bones found inside this dig (i.e lynx, 7600 years BP), they may have been the prey of at least two already identified predators, the other being a wolf.
December '17
There has been a temporary halt to digging- last weekend we had Storm Caroline and she caused damage to the access path to the main chamber. Smoo Cave is owned by our Highland Council, and Smoo Cave Tours enjoys a very good working relationship with the Council. We do small-ish repair work to the paths in the winter time - although I must admit it feels like a losing battle against nature, global warming I suppose.
