Smoo Cave – The Great Sea Cave and its Waterfall

The walk

The walk into Smoo Cave goes there and back from the cliff top beside the A838 on the eastern edge of Durness, down to the cave and along a walkway into its waterfall chamber. It is about 600 metres (under half a mile) in all: allow about an hour with time in the cave. The way down is by steep steps with a handrail, then a footbridge, so wear shoes that grip. The walk's own page, kept by Smoo Cave Tours, has maps of the cave.

At the top, a viewing bridge looks into the sink hole where the Allt Smoo leaves the moor and falls about 25 metres into the cave. The steps go down into Geodha Smoo, an inlet 800 metres long; the rocks standing in it are the last pillars of caves whose roofs fell in. Smoo is Norse for a cleft.

The cave mouth is an arch over 15 metres high, and the outer chamber runs back more than 60 metres; on the biggest tides the sea reaches its back wall. The cave formed where two layers of dolostone meet; the lower, blotched one is known as Leopard Rock, and its spotted pebbles lie at the entrance. Digs in the 1990s found a shell midden going back to the Iron Age and, well below today's floor, what may be the most northerly trace of Mesolithic people on the Scottish mainland.

The wooden walkway carries on into the waterfall chamber, where the burn comes through the roof, breaks on a rock three metres above the water and drops into a pool some eight metres deep, loudest after a wet spell.

The walkway is free and open all year. From April to October, Smoo Cave Tours also takes people by raft into the chamber beyond, daily from 11am to 4pm, or 10am to 5pm from June to August. Tours cost £15 an adult and £5 for under-16s, cash only, with no children under four and no booking ahead. Rain, or a strong south-westerly over Loch Meadaidh, can raise the water and stop them; the weather line, +44 1971 511 492, says each morning whether they run.

The Highland Council's public toilets at the top are open all year. The hot chocolate comes after, at Cocoa Mountain.

Afterwards

1. About 5 min by car

   

   Cocoa Mountain Balnakeil

   Hot chocolate

   Cocoa Mountain is in Balnakeil Craft Village, on the far side of Durness: the pale blue building with the white portico, where chocolates and truffles are made by hand. Have its rich hot chocolate, which the makers call The Best, with a croissant, a slice of cake or the rocky road made with ginger biscuits. It's open every day from 9am to 6pm until the end of November, then shuts for the winter; its own page gives the months it opens again. Sit inside, or outside on a fine day, where dogs are welcome. When it is shut, the Smoo Cave Hotel back by the cave is open all year, with food from mid-afternoon: ring +44 1971 511 227 to check the kitchen's hours.

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