Smoo Cave

Image of the interior of Smoo cave, found at the eastern end of the village of Durness. "Smoo" is a name thought to derive from the Old Norse Smuga which means "hiding place" and the name is applied to this end of the village and to the river, the Allt Smoo, which disappears into a sinkhole on the inland side of the mainland.

It is entirely possible that the "hiding place" that so appealed to the Vikings was not so much the cave itself as the extremely narrow and steep sided inlet which extends for a third of a mile back to the mouth of the cave from the inhospitable cliff-girt shoreline to the north. Traces have been found of a fishing and shipbuilding community living and working here during the Viking era, and it is easy to imagine that this was an ideal place for a community that wanted to stay undetected by anyone sailing by, in an age when far more travellers journeyed by sea than overland. The earliest evidence of occupation of the cave goes back much further, to around 5,000 years ago.

The first chamber was created by the action of the sea. What makes Smoo Cave unique is that the second and third chambers were created by the action of the freshwater Allt Smoo. A covered walkway leads off to the west side of the first chamber and leads to the second. Here you find the mist and roar that accompanies the foot of a 60ft waterfall caused by the river dropping into its sinkhole.

The end of the walkway is as far as you will be able to go unaided. During the summer season, and when the quantity of water flowing down the river is low enough, there are daily tours conducted by boat into a third chamber, which lies on the far side of the second.
credit: undiscovered Scotland
Read less