XXXII. Cleaves Cove, Dalry, Ayrshire; its Exploration and History

Abstract

The extensive and interesting Ayrshire cavern, long known as Cleaves Cove, is situated on the southern side of a romantic glen on the Duisk Water, about a mile and a half above the junction of that stream with the River Garnock at Dalgarven, and a mile and three-quarters south-east from the Dalry station of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. It is seven miles from the Ayrshire coast, and 170 feet above sea-level. The spot is rendered charming by the presence of a small waterfall, situated a short distance farther up the glen, and attractive to the geological eye by the mural face of an old limestone quarry, right in front of the principal entrance to the cave. Having been familiar with this cavern from my schoolboy days, I had long cherished a desire to explore it to the “benmost bore.” Had the traditions concerning it current in the district turned out to be true, this would have been no easy task. There was a story of a dog which, having gone into the cave after a fox, came out, after many days absence, at a place several miles distant. Another tale was that the poker in a neighbouring farmhouse having fallen into a crack at the side of the hearthstone, was believed to have found its way into the Cove by a fissure in the rock. Again, a piper who had gone into it playing his pipes, not being able to find his way out, was said to haunt the This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract