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Photo and video survey carried out in May 2008 by Allen Fraser in the capable hands of Ryan Leith. "You come to Francie's Hole (and) enter through a perfectly arched entrance cut in the face of a cliff perhaps forty feet or so in height, and can almost fancy you are in a cave in fairyland, so exquisite is the colouring of the roof and sides, and so pellucid is the water. What the length, or breadth, or height may be the writer cannot say, so overpowered with the beauty of the place was he, that he utterly forgot to estimate them. The rocks forming the sides and the roof, apparently porphyritic, is partly green from seaweed and slime, and partly red of many shades, and in places glistens like mica. The roof is studded with bosses of a deep rich purple, like the bloom on a grape, and resembling in form and regularity what are to be seen on the roof of cathedral crypts and cloisters. Several caves branch off on the left, and at the head is a beautiful pink beach, at the top of which are alcoves like the stalls in a church." John Tudor, Victorian traveller, on Papa Stour Jonathan Swales notes: "As marked on the 1:10000 map, Bordie Holl works out at about 360 metres, but they have the eastern entrance in the wrong place - it's actually at grid ref HU 1526 6238, not 1530 6230 as shown. Also the bend in the middle is more acute. I reckon the real length is nearer 330 metres. The caves through Fogla Skerry would also count - the longest is about 250 metres but there's an intersecting grid of them so you can probably do about twice that without seeing the sky." |
Papa Stour: outstanding sea cave systems
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