Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

STAFFA
Great Britain, and her husband and children, had ever
entered FinyaVs Cave, and the men gave three cheers,
which sounded very impressive there. We backed out,
and then went on a little farther to look at the other
cave, not of basaltic formation, and at the point called
The Herdsman.' It is seldom, indeed, that in these
turbulent seas boats can enter the cave itself comfort-
ably as the royal boat did on this occasion, but it is not
often that the sheltered landing near the centre of the
E side is impracticable, as it is on the lee of the pre-
vailing winds. The structure of the island shows a
lower stratum of volcanic agglomerate, above which
rises a black or dark brown compact columnar basalt,
which is again surmounted by another basalt with small
columns here and there, but generally amorphous. To
the S of the landing-place the objects of chief interest
which challenge the visitor's notice and admiration are,
first, the Scallop or Clamshell Cave ; second, the rock
called Buachaille or the Herdsman ; third, the Cause-
way and the Great Face or Colonnade at the SE corner
of the island ; fourth, Fingal's or the Great Cave on
the S side ; fifth, the Boat Cave ; and sixth, the Cor-
morant's or Mackinnon's Cave at the SW corner. There
are other caves in two bays on the W side of the island,
and others again at the N end, and between the N end
and the landing-place, but those latter groups are re-
markable neither for beauty nor size, though in some of
them the air, suddenly compressed by the inrolling
surge, produces a sound resembling that caused by the
discharge of a cannon. The form of the basaltic pillars,
of which the whole of the coast and of the arches, sides,
and floors of the caves are composed, is finely perfect ;
and the spots on the surface of the island which are
bare of soil, as well as the flatter parts of the rock at
the bottom of the coast-line of cliffs, show in many
places the ends of the columns so regularly arranged as
closely to resemble a tesselated pavement. It is this
architectural regularity of structure that gives the island
and its caves their particular interest and attraction,
and forms one of the leading features which strike
and impress a visitor, though the feeling of awe and
wonder is, it must be confessed, rather driven away by
the singing, whether of the Old Hundred or of God Save
the Queen, which the ordinary tourist seems to consider
the appropriate method of expressing his feelings in
such a place. It was this feeling that prompted the
first of Wordsworth's three sonnets on the Cave of
Staffa .—
' We saw, but surely, in the motley crowd,
Not one of us has felt the far-famed sight ;
How could we feel it? each the other's blight,
Hurried and hurrying, volatile and loud.
O for those motions only that invite
The Ghost of Fingal to his tuneful Cave
By the breeze entered, and wave after wave
Softly embosoming the timid light !
And by one Votary who at will might stand
Gazing and take into his mind and heart,
With undistracted reverence, the effect
Of those proportions where the almighty hand
That made the worlds, the sovereign Architect
Has deigned to work as if with human Art ! '
The highest point of the coast cliffs is between Fingal's
Cave and the Boat Cave, where they rise to 112 feet
above high-water mark. To the W of this they become
lower, and at Mackinnon's Cave are only 84 feet. At
the N end there is a rocky shore rising but a very short
distance above sea-level.
' At the Scallop or Clamshell Cave,' says Macculloch,
' the columns on one side are bent, so as to form a series
of ribs, not unlike an inside view of the timbers of a
ship. The opposite wall is formed by the ends of
columns bearing a general resemblance to the surface of
a honeycomb. This cave is 30 feet in height and 16 or
18 in breadth at the entrance ; its length being 130 feet,
and the lateral dimensions gradually contracting to its
termination. The inside is uninteresting. The noted rock
Buachaille, the Herdsman, is a conoidal pile of columns,
about 30 feet high, lying on a bed of curved horizontal
ones visible only at low water. The Causeway here
presents an extensive surface which terminates in a
376
STAFFA
long projecting point at the eastern side of the Great
Cave. It is formed of the broken ends of columns,
once continuous to the height of the cliffs. This alone
exceeds the noted Giant's Causeway, as well in dimen-
sions as in the picturesque diversity of its surface, but
it is almost neglected, among the more striking and
splendid objects by which it is accompanied. The
Great Face is formed of three distinct beds of rock of
unequal thickness, inclined towards the east in an angle
of about 9 degrees. The thickness of the lowest bed at
the western side is about 50 feet ; but in consequence of
the inclination, it disappears under the sea, not far
westward of the Great Cave. ' The second— the columnar
bed — is of unequal thickness, being 36 feet at the western
side, and 54 where the water first prevents its base from
being seen. The unequal thickness of the upper bed
produces the irregular outline of the island. In respect
of regularity the pillars fall somewhat short of those of
the Giant's Causeway. ' Very often they have no
joints ; sometimes one or more may be seen in a long
column : while, in other places, they are not only
divided into numerous parts, but the angles of the con-
tact are notched. They are sometimes also split by
oblique fissures, which detract much from the regularity
of their aspect. These joints are very abundant in the
columns that form the interior sides of the Great Cave,
to which, indeed, they are chiefly limited ; and it is
evident, that the action of the sea, by undermining
these jointed columns, has thus produced the excavation ;
as a continuation of the same process may hereafter in-
crease its dimensions. The average diameter is about
two feet ; but they sometimes attain to four. Hexagonal
and pentagonal forms are predominant ; hut they are
intermixed with figures of three, four, and more sides,
extending even as far as to eight or nine, but rarely
reaching ten. '
Round a projecting corner of cliff from the Great
Colonnade is the magnificent Fingal's Cave, worthy in
the grandeur of its association with the grandest of the
Ossianic heroes : —
* Where as to shame the temples deck'd
By skill of earthly architect,
Nature herself, it seem'd, would raise
A Minster to her Maker's praise !
Not for a meaner use ascend
Her columns, or her arches bend ;
Nor of a theme less solemn tells
That mighty surge that ebbs and swells,
And still, between each awful pause.
From the high vault an answer draws,
In varied tone prolong'd and high,
That mocks the organ's melody.'
The height from the top of the arched roof to the top of
the cliff is 30 feet, and downwards to the mean level of
the sea 66 feet. The pillars on the western side are 36
feet high, and those on the eastern side only 18, though
the upper ends are nearly in the same horizontal line.
The breadth at the entrance is 42 feet, and this is main-
tained till within a short distance of the end of the cave,
where it is reduced to 22 feet. The extreme length is
227 feet. The regularity of the arch and entrance is
best seen from the sea at some little distance, hut good
views are also to be obtained from the point of the
Causeway at low water. A path, now rendered more
secure by a strong rope passing through iron supports,
leads along the eastern side to near the end ; but care
requires to be taken, as the rock is damp and slippery,
and occasionally, though very very rarely, enormous
tidal waves come rushing in. A party of tourists
were overtaken, inside, by one of thesejn August 1884,
and three of them swept away and drowned. The
columns extend inward along the sides of the cave, and
the ceiling, which is divided by a longitudinal fissure,
varies in different places. At the outer portion of the
cave the roof consists of volcanic ash, in the middle of
broken ends of columns, and at the end portions of
both of these rocks come in. As the sea, even at full
ebb of the lowest tide, always remains of considerable
depth, ' the only floor of this cave is the beautiful green
water, reflecting from its white bottom those tints