Cave Hole, Portland

Cave Hole and the Broad Ope Crane.

Cave Hole (and the Blow Hole) is a large cave with a blow hole and a wooden crane (Broad Ope Crane) situated on the cliff top. Cave Hole lies on the south east side of the Isle of Portland, in Dorset, England. It is found half a mile (800 m) north-east from Portland Bill. The interior cavern is 50 feet (15 metres) square and 21 feet (6.3 m) high.^[1]

Nearby is one of two raised beaches at Portland Bill.

Background

Cave Hole was originally known as "Keeve's" and often appeared in many of Portland's smuggling tales.^[2] The cave represents the first stage in cave collapse, and is a depression 12 metres inland from the sea-cliffs where the roof of an underlying sea-cave has collapsed. The local First Beach, which sits next to the cave, is a product of complete collapse of a similar sea-cave. It still overhangs on its eastern side. Over previous centuries, the surrounding area of the cave, like much of Portland Bill, has been quarried around the cliff edges. There has been much quarrying at various places along the whole stretch of the surrounding area, known as Broad Ope, and much of it started in the 19th century or earlier, and has seemingly continued into the 1930s as old photographs show many old cranes with piles of shaped stone blocks nearby and at the quarry near Cave Hole, a tall metal crane. In some cases old quarrying has left level platforms. Stone was loaded into boats by the cranes on the cliff top, and some of these still exist, such as Portland Bill's Red Crane, although more recently they have been used for lowering fishing boats. The Broad Ope Crane is the sole crane that remains in the cave's area.^[3] In the rough coastal area of the cave, a small quarry illustrates the technique of 'backfilling' where the waste material was once piled up behind the workers at the quarry face. This resulted in trench advancing across the landscape.^[4]

Cave Hole is made up of a series of caves with steep roof sections, tunnels and ledges. The cave is also the prime Deep Water Soloing (DWS) area on Portland, as well as being a well protected site.^[5] The cave is popular with climbers, as the area dispels the myth that Portland is all flat walls full of crimpy holds. The cave's powerful routes range across huge banded roofs with a couple of the biggest bolted roofs in the south west region.^[6]

Additionally, nearby, Portland's only waterfall - fed by Portland's only free running stream - tips itself over a high cliff. Many others used to run free across Portland but are now culverted. The stream runs in a gully to the eastern cliff edge. It usually only flows in the winter months as during summer the gully remains dry. A man-made cave also exists nearby on the stretch of coastline, as well as remains of a tramway track where trucks loaded with stone waste would be pulled by horses or steam locomotives to the cliff edge and then emptied, which in turn created the scree slopes that are seen all around the majority of Portland's coastline. The remains of a demolished stone sawmill along the eastern coastal footpath is also within close range of the cave.^[4]

Cave Hole and stone ledge

A local mythical tale has surrounded the cave. The tale states that the cave is home to Roy Dog - a black dog, as high as man, with large fiery eyes, one green, one red. It is said that the creature emerges from the watery depths to seize any traveller passing by Cave Hole, and drags them down into his dark watery domain. This is similar to another folklore of another spectral black dog with large saucer shaped eyes, which prowls the island during the hours of darkness, called The Row Dog. However, unlike the Roy Dog he does not attack you, but merely obstructs your way, snarling and barking aggressively.^[7] The Roy Dog was subject to a tale in the book Dark Dorset, written by Robert Newland and Mark North, who even used an artist's impression of the creature for the book's front cover.^[8]

Wrecks

Various small craft have been driven into the cave by south easterly gales. The largest of which was a 40-ton vessel from Cowes in 1780.^[9] Ann Davison, who was the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean in 1952, was involved in a shipwreck at the cave. With her husband Frank Davison, another aviator, she purchased the ill-fated yacht "Reliance". The boat, which was alongside at Fleetwood on the Lancashire coast, required more refurbishment than anticipated and Frank was unwilling to compromise on standards. Debts grew, and with a writ of repossession about to be nailed to the mast, Ann and Frank hurriedly set sail for the West Indies, with the boat unfinished, and into the teeth of a gale. After intense hardship, first blown down the Irish Sea then to the East along the English Channel, they were wrecked at Cave Hole on the east side of Portland Bill on 4 June 1949, where Frank drowned but Ann managed to scramble ashore.^[10]

In 1952 Davison published her first autobiographical book Last Voyage, which detailed the ill-fated purchase of Reliance, and the wrecking.^[11] Later recalling the event Davison said "I did not look back at the sea. I knew I had beaten the sea for myself, but only for myself. Everything else the sea won from me."^[12] A professional photograph of the ship wrecked in the cave exists in circulation.^[13] In recent years, the boat has been restored by the Davisons and had set sail for Cuba.^[14]

The Blow Hole

The Blow Hole of Cave Hole.

The cave's blowhole stretches far into the solid rock, and allows people to look down through an iron grill into the sea cave, without sensing the cave's true proportions. The roof of the cave had broken through to the surface, lying in a hollow for decades. Whenever a powerful easterly gale occurs, the sea snorts up through the fissures. Soon after the blow hole was created, visitors were protected by the placing of steel bars. During the late 1980s, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council decided to block off the hole with heavy stone slabs as the hole was believed to be too dangerous, although the huge weight of the slabs greatly increased the risk of the cave roof collapsing and caused people to become more tempted to stand on the stones than they would have been to stand on the iron grating. A storm in January 1990 caused massive waves to roar into the cave and up the blowhole. The slabs – each weighing approximately two tonnes, were lifted up by the power of the waves and were smashed surrounding the hole. In January 2004, the same stones were placed over the hole again, however the waves successfully broke and tossed them around as before. Today, the original rusted iron grating remains intact despite efforts of the local council to destroy it and close off the hole to visitors. The latest arrangement in 2007 saw the council adding a second set of new bars, whilst new heavy stones have been placed around the edge of the grid, allowing visitors to now look down into the blow hole in relative safety.^[4]

References

Coordinates: 50°31′11″N 2°26′41″W / 50.5198°N 2.4446°W / 50.5198; -2.4446