Smoo Cave

Smoo Cave is a remarkable sea cave at the north-east end of Durness village, where the burn at Allt Smoo cuts through the Durness limestone and meets the sea at the head of a deep narrow inlet. The cave is unusual in being formed from both above and below: the outer chamber is a sea cave eroded by the Atlantic, while the inner chambers were formed by freshwater action of the burn cutting downwards. The result is one of the largest sea-cave entrances in Britain.

Access to the outer chamber is free at all times, a steel walkway descends from the car park at the cliff top to the cave mouth, and there is a public viewing platform inside with daylight from the entrance. To reach the inner chambers, where the burn drops through a roughly 20-metre waterfall into a hidden pool, visitors take a small-boat tour run seasonally from inside the cave itself; this involves a short boat ride across the inner chamber and a clamber over rock to a viewing point on the water-fall pool. Tours operate roughly Easter through October, weather-dependent and sometimes suspended after heavy rain when the burn floods.

Durness village, half a mile west, is the practical base for visiting the cave and is also the eastern gateway for Cape Wrath, the Keoldale ferry pier from which the Cape Wrath ferry sails is just south of the village.