Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Smugglers cave in Heswall

1912 map

230 actually has The Cave written on it.

Hope you don't mind me butting in!!

COOL COOL

we will have to go and look see

Is it in somebodys property then ?

thats ok i have wiki cards lol

I can add a few images for you, well not of the cave, but the area that it will be in.

Ok, you can enter a public area from Oldfield road....via this well made gate.


Keep left and follow the fence until you reach an opening on the top of the hill.



Bear left....following this path.



And if you keep left along the fence you get here.....


The outhouse sort of under the 'bright' green tree in the centre of this picture, and that tree is growing out of a 'cliff' type area made from sandstone

The area is fenced off so I went for a wander to try and get around the fence (The fence is just a wire, but I thought as it was sunny I would not wander around some randomly fenced off land in full view of the houses).
This area there are large 'valleys', so went to the bottom of the one by the cave house looking for a way to it. There is a small stream leading through here so I followed it for a bit until the shrubbery got a bit too dence for my t-shirt and shorts so I set up camp.....



Whilst here I tried my hand with an oscillator, but as it had not been PAT tested since 93 I thought I would leave it to the professionals.



The area smelt of poo, and was scattered with beer cans and bottles, so I decided to leave the camp behind for another day.

Hope this is of help to people.

Neston, do we have to go through private land to get to the cave then ?

There are no signs about (or at least I didn't see any), but I'd say it was private land. It looks like someone has made a rather large clearance and fenced it off, which seems a tad strange given it's location and inaccessibility by wheeled vehicle and by foot (in one form or another).
I wouldn't be at all surprised that if you ventured around on the fenced off land, a nice man with a rent a cop badge and a big dog may turn up and tell you to get back over the fence to the public side.

It is the old croquet lawn mentioned above. Yes, the land is private.

The land that is fenced off is defo not an old croquet lawn, this is cleared shrubbery, and is very uneven and 'hilly'.
It's actually in front of all the houses between them and the public area (The Dales as I have been told), absolute nightmare to get to due to having to navigate up & down a 'gauge' that is overgrown, and once at the fence it's a good 50 to 100 meters to get to the boundary of any of the properties.
I'd say the clearing is private land, and it has been done as a clear area to spot potential trespassers.
I could be wrong, but as I could not see anyway of a vehicle getting there, it seems someone has gone to a lot of trouble to clear the area for some reason. I can only speculate, but this is as far as I will go with this, I'll still visit the area as it's a good place to do some running, but my curiosity on this subject will end at that fence.

Sorry, I realise what you are talking about know, they have done a massive clearance of what must be getting on for a quarter of the dales, if you go up the steps at the pipers lane entrance there is another massive clearance area.

I guessed one plant was becoming too dominant, it is quite normal to clear gorse every now and then, but on this occasion they have also cut down loads of small birch (and other) trees.

Maybe they be clearing those scabby trees lookin for burried smugglers treasure eh mateys ?

Arrrrgh !

Just picked up on this from the new post enquiring about smugglers caves. The cave in Heswall, is in Lower Heswall. It is on private property and was open a few years ago to the public, on one of the Heritage Open Days. At that time, I visited and sat in the cave,it is just like a sitting area, which may I add, is not very big. It is situated in the garden and if you try to sneak in, you will be well and truly spotted or eaten by the dogs!! Interesting, but not as awesome as had been expected. Probably too many people around to get the full feel of the place.

Granny, theres an interesting report of a wiki visit here in the u.e Forum.