Fingal's Cave
Cave Argyll and Bute, Alba / Scotland
About Fingal's Cave
Fingal's Cave sits on Staffa, a small uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides about ten kilometres west of Mull, reachable only by boat. The cave itself is a sea tunnel roughly 20 metres high and 70 metres deep, its walls, ceiling and floor formed entirely from tightly packed hexagonal basalt columns — the result of a lava flow cooling with unusual uniformity around 60 million years ago. The same geological event produced the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, and the two sites were once connected by the same flow. In Scottish Gaelic the cave is called An Uamh Binn, meaning the melodious cave, on account of the way ocean swells reverberate inside the vaulted chamber. That acoustic quality moved Felix Mendelssohn to compose his Hebrides Overture after visiting in 1829, and the cave had already drawn Queen Victoria, Wordsworth, Keats, Turner, and Jules Verne. The island is also a nesting site for puffins between May and September, though they tend to gather on the opposite side from the cave.
Location & details
- Category
- Cave
- Region
- Argyll and Bute, Alba / Scotland, United Kingdom
- Coordinates
- 56.43137, -6.34139
Nearby hidden gems
Looking for more? Explore all caves in Argyll and Bute.
Added by Alex on PinIt.