St Ninian's Treasure Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
A short walk across a beach (accessible at nearly all times) to near the ruins of an ancient chapel.
There are at least two reasons to visit this cache. Firstly from the parking area (N 59 58 280 W 001 19 827) you need to walk across a lovely beach with the sea coming in at each side. This is called a tombolo. This is the largest active tombolo in the UK. Only at the highest of tides might it be not possible to access the cache. This is a very rare occurance, certainly not a daily or even monthly event.
The second reason is when you have crossed the beach, the cache is hidden close (but not in- so don't search inside the fenced area) to the site of the 12th Century St Ninian's Chapel, the remains of which can still clearly be seen. In 1958 an excavation found a hoard of 8th century Celtic silver in the chapel grounds under a stone slab in a wooden box. There were 8 silver bowls, 12 silver brooches and various trinkets dating from around 800AD. They were probably buried by a Pictish chief who was protecting his treasure from a Viking raid. Replicas can be seen in the excellent Museum of Shetland in Lerwick (admission free). The National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh) has the original items.
The cache itself is a 1 litre ice cream tub. It is in a good place to protect it from the windy Shetland weather, but please replace as found to protect it from the elements and any muggles- St Nininan's gets a lot of visitors by Shetland standards.
We have added our own treasure to the cache- a smoky quartz gemstone!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Pybfr gb gur pbeare sraprcbfg haqre n pyhzc bs ebpxf.