Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington)

Also known as:
Cuddy's Cove, Gled Law cave and St Cuthbert's Cave
Nearest town:
Coldstream (19km W)
OS reference:
NU003310
OS sheet:
75
Latitude:
55° 34' 21.12 N
Longitude:
1° 59' 42.87 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington) by Hob

From ‘Incised Markings on Stone’, 1869

These carvings don’t seem to be C&R style, and hence are suspected to be of more recent date.

Image credit: J Collingwood Bruce
Hob
Hob Apr 19, 2007
Image of Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington) by Hob

From ‘Incised Markings on Stone’, 1869

These carvings used to be there, but apparently they’re now gone. Weathered away to nowt.

Image credit: J Collingwood Bruce
Hob
Hob Apr 19, 2007
Image of Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington) by Hob

George Tate’s 19thC sketch of the now lost prehistoric motifs.

Image credit: Mr George Tate
Hob
Hob Mar 18, 2006
Image of Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington) by awrc

Detail of the stone in the cave at Gled Law (this is presumably just erosion)

Image credit: awrc 2002ce
A
awrc May 25, 2004
Image of Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington) by moey

The huge Sandstone Outcrop, Cuddy’s cave at the bottom.

moey
moey Feb 9, 2003

Articles

Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington)

A
awrc May 25, 2004

This astonishing cave, in a giant rock like an elephants foot rising out of nowhere, is on the southern side of the main Doddington complex. (It is not listed on the www.magic.gov.uk site.)

Folklore

Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington)
Cave / Rock Shelter
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Nov 24, 2009

Question. Where have ye been to-day?
Answer. Where the devil hanged his grannie.

[The devil hanged his grannie on “the bowed rock on the brae,” a hanging crag, on the slope of Doddington Hill, that faces Wooler. It is a cavernous rock – one of Cuddy’s or St. Cuthbert’s coves – and has cut on its sides a few Runic characters, and on its top some of those mysterious cup-markings, ascribed to the ancient Britons, which are so frequent on this hill. On the summit of the rock, which is of sandstone, the rain gathers into little circular pools, which, being whirled about by the wind and partly filled with sand, are becoming deeper and deeper. They empty themselves when full along many deep gutters, round the brow of the rock, that resemble hollows made by ropes fraying the softer parts of the stone [...] – History of Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, vii., p75. – J. H.]

From the Folklore Society’s reprinting of the Denham Tracts, v1, 1892.

Miscellaneous

Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington)
Cave / Rock Shelter
fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Feb 10, 2003

According to Stan Beckensall,
“There are many similar named caves in the north, some from a pet named for St Cuthbert, whose body is said to have rested at various places on it’s long journey from Lindesfarne.
Although motifs on it haver disappeared, George Tate has left an account and drawings of them and says:
On the scalp of the rock where it dips into the hill, four figures are traceable; but from being very much defaced, it is difficult to make out these forms, even when viewed under a favourable light.”

Sites within 20km of Cuddy’s Cave (Doddington)

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