A Maiden's Gaze Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Cache is a small tab lock box with a log book, pencil and a few small swaps, wrapped in a black sack. Stout walking boots required as some scrambling over rocks is needed. Walk to cache site can be muddy. Dogs need to be on a lead please as there can be sheep on the headland.
Brown's Bay - Our summer Sunday afternoons were spent here playing on the beach, in the icy sea, climbing over rocks and walking around the headland. Always an enjoyable experience and a good free day out, going home tired and happy and a little sunburnt!
The Rocks - On the eastern side of the bay, at low tide, expanses of Cretaceous Ulster White Limestone are clearly evident, separated by a fault from the much earlier red-brown Triassic marls of the Mercia Mudstone Group to the west. The White Limestone forms well-defined beds and is separated from the basalt above by a layer of red-stained clay with flints. This used to be considered a soil, lying on the limestone landscape, buried by the first lavas of the Tertiary eruptions around 60 million years ago. It is now interpreted as a welded volcanic ash which formed in an exceptionally violent volcanic event. Along the fault there are thin smears and slivers of Hibernian Greensand containing the green mineral glauconite. The Greensand is also Cretaceous in age and lies immediately below the White Limestone. The fault also yields thin lenses of grey mudstone with limestone fragments of the Jurassic Waterloo Mudstone Formation, more clearly seen below the Greensand across the lough north of Larne. Across the fault on the western side are the rich red-brown marls of the even earlier Triassic Mercia Mudstone Group - puzzling because they contain blocks of basalt, white limestone and flint, all of which are later in age than Triassic rocks. The most rational explanation for their presence is that they were caught up in explosive volcanic activity close to the vent of a volcano and settled with the severely disrupted marls. Also on the western side of the bay, the total thickness of the Interbasaltic Bed can be seen. Its base is an orange-red bauxite passing into yellow streaked bauxite, topped off by a purplish-grey crumbly rock called a lithomarge. The Interbasaltic Bed is the topmost level of the Lower Basalts which was deeply weathered and denatured in a sub-tropical climate in the long volcanic hiatus before the eruption of the Upper Basalts. This variety of rocks, faults and unusual related features makes Brown’s Bay a superb natural classroom. Over the years it has proved ideal for the teaching of basic geological mapping techniques.
A Maiden's Gaze - The Maidens commonly refers the two visible rocks situated approx six miles off the coast of Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, however, in total there are 9 rocks, 7 of which are submerged.
Old Maidens Lighthouse - Lighthouses were established on the visible east and west rocks, between 1828 and 1829. The western was discontinued around 1903, however the majority of the structure still stands and can be seen from shore. The current lighthouse is painted black and white, has a height of 23 meter's and nominal range of 24 nautical miles. The station was automated on the 31 October 1977.
Location: 54°55.7' North 5°43.6' West
54°55.748' North
5°43.709' West
Aids to Navigation
Light:
Fl (3) W 20s. Shown throughout 24 hours. Nominal Range: 24 nautical miles.
Auxiliary Light:
Fl R 5s over Russel and Highland Rocks. Nominal Range: 8 nautical miles
Radar Beacon:
Morse 'M' on vessel's radar display.
Height of Tower:
23 metres.
Height of light above mean high water springs:
29 metres.
Please make sure to replace the cache container carefully back in it's hiding place to keep it safe and dry.
There is a large car park at Brown's Bay and you need to cross the main road to access the path to the headland.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Vg'f va gur ebpxf, vs lbh yvfgra gb gur ubfg.
Whfg ybbx hc, lbh'yy or yrsg bs gur cbfg.
Gnxr vg rnfl, be ng yrnfg n fgrnql cnpr.
Gur pnpur vf orgjrra gur cngu naq n uneq cynpr.