Built in the 1850s Strachan's Cave is a rare surviving example of a privately built refuge, and represents the level to which race relations had fallen in Victorian New Zealand. The cave was built by the Strachan family who immigrated to New Zealand in 1851. For the first two years David and Elizabeth Strachan, and their children stayed in the Wanganui town, before taking up their property known as 'Lornty' in 1853. Here they built a house and cleared the land for a sheep farm. Troubled by the state of affairs between Pakeha settlers and Maori, compounded by their relative isolation from the main Pakeha population at Wanganui, the Strachan's excavated a nearby hillside, creating a cave to retreat to in times of threat.
Strachan's cave consists of an entrance passage, two 'rooms', and a long narrow passage at the back. The entrance has two gunports guarding the passage, whilst the long narrow passage at the back is also guarded by a third gunport facing directly into the second room. Although the family had many scares, especially during the conflicts of the 1860s, they were never attacked.
Until the mid-1980s the cave remained hidden behind bush and scrub.