Culver Hole

Smugglers' Hole

Useful Information

Location:	Near Port Eynon, Gower Peninsula.
Open:
Fee:
Classification:	Cave house, sea cave
Light:	no light, bring electric torch.
Dimension:
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Address:	n/a
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

Is it a dovecote, as the name suggests? Culver house is another name of a dovecote. But the house is too big and has stairs and floors inside. So some believe, it was a smugglers hideout, and legend tells about a tunnel, connecting it to the nearby Salt House.

The cave looks more like a cleft, high and narrow, and tilted with about ten degree to the right. The wall is at the end of a narrow cove, the cave is just the prolongation of this cove. It follows the layers of the limestone, was most likely formed by weathering removing a weaker rock layer, while the neighbouring layers resisted erosion much better.

Both, the exploration of the cave and the cave house are rather dangerous. The cave is narrow and wet, the stairs of the cave house are steep and slippery. This makes it a sight, you should look at but not enter. However, the outside is well worth a visit. The house is of impressive size and has uneven windows in several levels. The cave house walls are two meters thick.

Rather weird is the fact, that there are two caves on Gower Peninsula, only a few kilometers apart, both called Culvers Hole. The other cave, which is also called Three Chimneys Cave is to the north west at the Spaniard Rocks near Llangennith. This cave was the place of several archaeological excavations and contained Bronze Age and Roman remains.