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Kilspindie Golf Course
Cave (Post Medieval)
Site Name Kilspindie Golf Course
Classification Cave (Post Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Smugglers' Cave
Canmore ID 55058
Site Number NT48SE 34
NGR NT 4500 8027
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/55058
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Aberlady
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County East Lothian
NT48SE 34 4500 8027.
(Name: NT 4500 8027) Cave (NAT)
OS 6" map (1854)
A cave about 70 yds long; it is of artificial construction being partly built with stone and lime and partly hewn out of solid rock. Within it are four or five small recesses or rooms. It is supposed to have been constructed as a place of concealment for contraband goods by smugglers.
Name Book 1853
This cave was described as being 70 yards long with 4 or 5 recesses or rooms. No evidence of this cave were visible during the survey. Its entrance may well have been blocked up for safety reasons.
Site recorded by GUARD during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, 'The Firth of Forth from Dunbar to the Coast of Fife' 20th February 1996.
Field Visit (6 September 2006)
Scan of and information relating to a map of Smugglers's Cave, Aberlady. The map was drawn by Thomas Murray in 1940 based on his exploration of the cave in ca. 1890.
A Derrick 6th September 2006
Excavation (March 2009)
In 2006, the Aberlady Conservation Society was presented with a map of the internal layout of a ‘Smuggler’s Cave’ as it was in 1890 with a letter dated December 1940 from the cartographer (Thomas Murray) to the then Earl of Wemyss describing the internal condition of the cave. A stone and sand mortar wall emerging from the cliff face matches the description of the structure on the map and in the letter. A trench at this location revealed a second parallel wall and showed that both walls continued into the cliff face. Three WW2 tank defence blocks on the edges of the dune above the walls restricted further excavation into the cliff face. It is
possible that the walls are contemporary with the adjacent scheduled Iron Age fort, but it is equally possible that they relate to the 18th-century mills depicted on William Forrest’s 1799 map, or to 19th-century quarrying shown on the OS map of 1854.
Archive: RCAHMS (intended). Report: East Lothian SMR and RCAHMS (intended)
Funder: Aberlady Conservation Society and Heritage Lottery Fund
A Blackwell, C Jones, I Malcolm and P Richardson 2009
