Scotland’s Mysterious Cave of Death

Scotland’s Mysterious Cave of Death

Along the pristine, windswept coast of the south shore of the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, near Lossiemouth and surrounded by soaring cliffs that reach up towards the grey sky is a cave that is very difficult to access, only open at low tide and perhaps seeming outwardly like many of the other sea caves of the area. However, within the perpetual darkness here are hidden vast historical mysteries, ancient enigmas, and macabre discoveries that have puzzled archeologists for over a century.

Called the “Sculptor’s Cave,” it was long known by the locals but mostly avoided and only first properly explored and excavated in 1929 by archeologist Sylvia Benton, who called it a grim place the “sun never touches.” It was found to be an ancient Bronze Age site dating back to perhaps 1,100 BC., and held within the dank gloom were found Pictish carvings on the walls and it was littered with various items from the era such as pottery, worked bone, a swan’s neck pin, and several bronze arm rings, as well as numerous small copper alloy rings wrapped in gold foil, amber beads, and artifacts from other time periods as well, including Iron Age crucibles, slag and ironwork, with much of the contents of the cave suggesting that it was used all the way up the Early Medieval period. While this was all very unusual to find in a nearly inaccessible cave in the middle of nowhere and had purposes we can only guess at, what was truly special and bizarre about this place was all of the human remains lying around.