Smoo Cave

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Smoo Cave in Durness, Scotland is worth a visit on your trip around the NC500, with an interesting history involving smugglers!

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  • Created By: Cheryl
  • Created: December 14, 2023 9:52 pm
  • Updated: January 23, 2025 11:45 pm
Place Type: Caves, Natural Features
Lodging Type:
Cuisine:
Photo Subject:
Locale: Europe, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, UK
Address: Smoo Cave, Lairg IV27 4QA, UK
City: Lairg
Postal code: IV27 4QA
One of the official stops on the North Coast 500, Smoo Cave in Durness Scotland, has an interesting history -- involving smuggling, of course!

One of the official stops on the North Coast 500, Smoo Cave in Durness Scotland, has an interesting history — involving smuggling, of course!

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Smoo Cave
  • Worth Seeing
Overall
4

Summary

Smoo Cave is definitely worth a visit on your trip around the North Coast 500 route! It has an interesting history, but I’d definitely recommend doing the tour if you go to get the full experience.

Pros

  • Interesting history
  • It’s a cave with a waterfall!
  • If you just want to visit, it’s free (to my recollection)

Cons

  • If you just walk in, chances are you won’t get to fully explore. The tours take you on a boat into the cave, and I wish we’d done one.
  • There’s a long pathway down to the cave, which would be a limitation for some.
No Pets
££
Limited to None
No bikes
Highlights: A cave with a waterfall inside and a rich history that includes Viking, smuggling, and a highwayman.
Accessibility:From what I can recall, it was not accessbile due to the nature of the place. There was a long pathway to walk down to the cave entrance, a wood footbridge, uneven terrain/
Activities: Array

About Smoo Cave

Smoo Cave is a…cave (of course) in Durness, Scotland. It’s worth a stop on your trip around Scotland’s North Coast 500 and has an interesting history.

The Scotsman has an interesting article about the history of the place (and a better photo than I managed to get — mine are all close up to get a wide view of the cave entrance).

The article includes references to Viking finds on archeological digs, a history of smuggling (whisky, of course), and a kill site for a 16th-century highwayman.

You’ll pass over a covered footbridge going into the cave — surrounded by a bunch of stone stacks as people can’t seem to avoid stacking stones despite notes reminding people not to do this!

Inside the cave, you’ll find a waterfall — evidently, the cave goes back farther than we went. There’s even a company that does tours in the cave, which we didn’t have time for during our adventure there. I’d really recommend doing a tour here to really see the cave. For us, it was just a walk-in, look around, and leave.

I believe it was free to enter, but there was a charge for the tour.

Google Reviews of Smoo Cave

Below are some recent reviews from Google reviewers.

4.6

Smoo Cave

This is one of the incredibly beautiful places I have ever visited in my life. There is a waterfall inside the cave, which is beautiful and the force of the water was high.
It’s a scenic route to reach the caves and ten minutes walk to see the waterfall. Must visit❤️
Beautiful cave with a dramatic waterfall inside! Albeit it’s only for those who are happy to walk down a lot of steps and of course back up but it was well worth the views. (Check the video)

We went out of season so it was quiet and we just parked up in the small car park available which had loos too! Ideal! Nice little place to visit if you can on the NC500
There's a wee carpark, picnic area and public toilets. Was busy when I got there but it's right on the NC500 so that wasn't surprising. It's only a 5 minute walk down to the cave but the steps down are quite steep so maybe not for those with reduced mobility - especially on the way back up. Don't forget to check out the sink hole on the opposite side of the road before you come to the car park - coming from the east.
Scottish Piranha! Slightly tongue in cheek I think but a brilliant experience visiting this geological phenomena.

The tour is pretty interesting as you find out about how the cave was formed, the people that used to live there and how it forms part of a largely undiscovered huge network of underground caverns yet to be explored.

Bring appropriate footwear for a wet cave. You can take a little dinghy tour to explore further insight the caves .

Take cash! No reception in the cave!
Worth a stop and look. Toilets at the top in car park. Walk down some steps to cave. We didn’t do tour (cash only), but could see enough. Walk out to the viewpoint with it for dramatic scenery.

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Cheryl
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I like writing, WordPress, photography and, when I'm not doing those things, cycling, looking at birds, camping, and reading.

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Categories, Tags & More

Category: Cave | Natural Features | North Coast 500 Official Stops

Tags: North Coast 500 | Scotland | UK

General Locale: Europe | Scotland | Scottish Highlands | UK

Place Type: Natural Features | Caves

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