We had never heard about this 19th century smugglers cave even though living up here for 12 years. We found out about it today and set off on an expedition to find it.

We eventually did…

In the 19th century the fishermen didn’t own their own boats. The paid for them in the fish they caught. A friend of my wife has done some research and for every one boat registered another four were smuggling. The crews would go out in their sixareens to the fishing. This was a deadly job and a fair few tragedies happened around these shores. In July 1881 58 men were lost from Gloup when 10 boats foundered in an unexpected storm. Basically every able bodied man from the village was lost.

These clinker built boats would head out up to 40 miles off shore and then return. Some would stop off in Foula, an island off Shetland, sell or trade some of their fish for brandy and then head into their secret locations. They would Drop off the brandy and then head home. They would either return for it later or some of their accomplices would do it for them.

This cave was one such secret location. One end opens directly to the sea and is not visible from the nearby village of Hamnavoe. The other entrance is about 100 metres away and is well hidden amongst a jumble of rocks.

On the way back the kids just had to jump off every available rock…

We had an awesome afternoon out exploring somewhere around 7 miles from where we live.