The many fascinating cliffs, inlets and caves near Arbroath probably deserve a whole book to themselves. There are stories of ghosts, murders, suicides, and smuggling here. Some of the names of the places fascinate all the more because we do not know the stories behind them. Some we can guess. Among the places here, many were used to land and conceal contraband during the smuggling days, hiding goods from the zealous excisemen. Among the local places used for that purpose were Dickmont's Den and Cove Ha'en. Along this coast is Elliot, once called Ellot, where a local kirk-session elder was a prominent ringleader of a smuggling operation. He used to hide his illicit imported brandy and gin in the fields here and had a well-trained crew of local men. Brandy Cave most obviously speaks of the long-forgotten trade.
This part of the coast has been blessed with imaginative names. On the more legendary side of things there is the recess in the cliffs known as the Mermaid's Kirk, though it is also known more prosaically as the Pebbly Den. There is, near the Arbroath end of the coastal stretch, The Elephant's Foot, a deep depression with a sea cave. (Other creature names are The Sphynx and The Camel's Back, plus the more humble Lesser and Greater Doo Caves.) You can see the holed rock called The Cruisie and nearby The Three Storey House.
Not far from this is the Mariner's Grave, site in the 19th century of a terrible shipwreck. Some of the survivors were rescued by a basket being lowered from the cliff top. There is also the Monk and Maiden's Leap, the Forbidden Cave, Carlingheugh (Witch Cliff). Carlingheugh Bay is a wide, walkable stretch, and within it is the Dripping Well, or Dreepin Wallie. You can examined the flat rock formation called The Floors (or Flairs), and have a look at the Dark Cave (there is also a Light Cave). The Mermaid's Well lies in the deep den leading down to Castlesea Bay and Tangle Ha, near Auchmithie.
Some of the caves on this coastline have more innocuous, or at least less dramatic, histories. The Masons Cave gained its name from the Masonic Lodge in Arbroath using the space to conduct some of its ceremonies, particularly on St John's Eve, though formerly it was likely used as yet another natural feature frequented by smugglers, likely a place where they kept their boats. Inside the cave is a sping which has the constant temperature of 47.4 degrees all year long. Natural wonders are here, such as the blandly named Blow Hole, where the sea periodically spouts up through a natural aperture.
The most curious of all the wild scenes on this rocky coast is the Geary or Gaylet Pot, in a field not far from Auchmithie. It is a huge pit, about fifty yards in diameter, more than one hundred yards from the front of the cliffs facing the sea, and forty yards in depth below the surfiu^e of the field. The entrance from the sea is seventy feet high by forty broad, and it contracts gradually till it enters the bottom of the pit, where it is about twelve feet in height and breadth. At high water in easterly storms the water is impelled into the pit with extreme violence and loud noise, and the water boils, and surges, and froths in an extraordinary manner. The bottom of the pit can be reached from the field at low water, as the soil slopes down from the north-west side, but in other parts the rocks are all but perpendicular.
The cave is a haven for some species of birds. In 1950, some 165 kittiwake nests were counted in the entrance to the cave. Among the dignitaries who have been impressed by its natural wonder is Robert Burns, who visited Auchmithie on 13 September, 1787. It seems first to have been noted in Edward's Description of The Country of Angus (1678), as The Terrible Well or Pot of Auchmithie.
As the late local writer Colin Gibson rightly said, 'The Devil owns a lot of property along the Arbroath Cliffs.' Colin went on to enumerate these natural features which the Evil One possessed nearby. There is his 'anvil,' a slab of sandstone at the entrance to the Dark Cave. Then there's his 'e'en', glittering in the Smuggler's Cave, Dickmont's Den. He also has a 'grindstone' on Auchmithie Beach and a 'letterbox' aperture in the rocks.
Most magnificent however is the sea stack call the Deil's Head. Despite its forboding ownership, the stack has sometimes been targeted by climbers. The first known climb was in the late Victorian period. In 1911, some audacious adventurer scaled the stack and cemented in a flagpole on its summit. But the local storms (doubtless sent by Himself) ensured the erection did not endure.
