Wizard’s Cave or Smuggler’s Cave: Treasure in Tynemouth!

Tynemouth Castle and Priory stands on a lonely promontory intruding into the savage North Sea. Legends tell of underground passages and dungeons below the Castle and Priory site. Among this network lies a cave, often known as Jingling Geordie’s Hole, Jingling Man’s Hole or the Wizard’s Cave.

The entrance apparently lay on the north side of the priory, facing King Edward’s Bay. Others say it faces out to sea.

Some believe a wizard, or an old man, lived in the cave. He made strange clanking noises at night when he prowled the area.

But other historians explain that Jingling Geordie was a 17th-century pirate and smuggler. The cave provided a handy lookout spot for incoming ships. Apparently, he still had fetters on his legs and the rattling chains accompanied his every move.

Yet others still think wreckers used the cave. They “lit fires at its entrance to lure ships to their destruction on the rocks below” (Waine 1942: 3).

What exactly is this cave? Is it natural, or manmade? Let’s find out!

The Wizard’s Cave and its Treasure

Long before Jingling Geordie’s day, a famous and brave knight named Walter the Bold travelled to Tynemouth. He’d heard the tales of a mysterious cave, filled with treasure guarded by dragons and demons.

This cave had an arched doorway leading to two chambers. One of them had a hole 12ft deep leading to 2 small vaults.

So Walter clambered down to the cave during the night, armed with a sword and a lamp. He pushed his way along a narrow passage. Almost immediately, demons and other inhuman spirits attacked him from all sides.

Being a brave knight, Walter struck out with his sword. He pushed his way further into the Wizard’s Cave. But the demons pursued him to the edge of a yawning gap. Seeing its depth, he cursed. Could he make the jump?

He took off his heavier armour – presumably, the demons waited patiently while he did so. Walter said a quick prayer and leapt across the gap. He scrabbled to safety on the far side, leaving the demons stuck behind him.

Walter followed the passage to a huge door. A bugle hung on a golden chain beside it. Walter snatched up the bugle and blew three long, loud blasts. A magic cock crowed and the door burst open.

Beyond the door lay a vast chamber. Twelve golden lamps hung on twelve crystal pillars. Piles of gold, silver, and precious gems gleamed in the low light.

“It may not be sung what treasures were seen,
Gold heaped upon gold, and emeralds green,
And diamonds, and rubies and sapphires untold
Rewarded the courage of Walter the Bold”

(Richardson 1844: 395)

What happened to Walter the Bold?

The legend doesn’t explain how he got back out, or how he took the treasure with him. But he apparently managed to do both, becoming a rich lord. He owned a hundred castles and ran their vast estates. He also founded a monastery and married a beautiful princess.

Or did he?

Other legends say that the caves were haunted, filled with the sounds of moans and chains being dragged. Some believe it was intended to frighten anyone so they wouldn’t follow Walter’s example. But perhaps Walter didn’t make it out alive?

Or perhaps it’s just Jingling Geordie, scaring people away from his lookout spot.

But wait! There’s more…

Harry C. Waine also relates a legend that the cave was home to the Wytche of Tinmouth, who apparently cast her spells in the cave and only ventured out on foggy days. Nothing good is attached to this particular witch, and she’s claimed to have caused ewes to lose their lambs, pigs to eat their young, and “children to have twisted limbs” (1942: 3).

In another legend, Ceowulf, King of Northumbria, apparently lived in the cave in the 8th century after abdicating his throne and becoming a hermit (Waine 1942: 3).

He also points out that the cave is not a natural formation, something discovered in the 1840s. Masonry formed part of the entrance, and a 12 ft hole inside the cave led to a square room below. A narrow corridor led to another room, but no one seems to have gone any further than that (Waine 1942: 3). Someone suggested it might have been part of a network of underground passages belonging to the priory above, but no one knows for sure.

A landslip destroyed the cave’s entrance in the 1880s (Matthews 2009: 64). While researching this post, I found conflicting articles saying you could still get into the entrance of the wizard’s cave. But a cave-in makes it impossible to get much further than a couple of feet. Other commenters say that you can get further, but you’d be cut off at high tide.

Who knows if demons or dragons brought down the ceiling to seal off their treasure? The wizard’s cave is unlikely to uncover more of its secrets. I highly recommend a visit to the Priory, if only to see the beautiful oratory chapel. But if you go down on the beach late at night and you hear a clank of chains…you’d do well to pick up your pace…

The Caves in Cullercoats

It’s difficult to know if the Wizard’s Cave was a cave, a passage, a tunnel, or something else. Yet there are other caves along the northeast coast which were more clearly associated with smuggling. In doing so, they also picked up their own folklore.

Just up the coast from Tynemouth lies the small hamlet of Cullercoats. Cullercoats is better known for its fishing history, though smuggling runs alongside this. Customs collectors in major ports would charge customs on incoming goods, so smuggling became a way to bring goods into the country without paying the customs charge.

Riding Officers would patrol coves and inlets to watch for anyone unloading goods in the area, while Custom ships challenged any ships that looked likely to offload goods before they reached port. In some cases, people from local communities worked in these roles since they knew the area well and could be paid for this local knowledge. Others would join the smuggling rings for a cut of the profits in selling sought-after goods like brandy and tea (Barratt 2013).

A couple of caves in the bay are still referred to as Smuggler’s Cave. The caves were also apparently known locally as the Fairy’s Cave (The Faery Folklorist 2010), and I have to wonder if smugglers suggested the name to deter locals from wandering too close.

It’s difficult to know which cave is the Fairy’s Cave. Joseph Lumsdon found the body of Elgar William Harrison in the smuggler’s cave known as ‘fairies hall’ in 1928. According to the coroner’s report, Harrison drowned and was washed into the cave, though there seemed to have been doubts as to how he ended up in the water (Shields Daily Gazette 1928: 4). Lloyd G Reed notes that there was a cave where the small promenade ends that was bricked up, another fairy cave described in 1925, and a large cave east of the southern pier that was also described as a smuggler’s cave in 1823 (2014: 130). A news article from 1925 is more specific, referring to a cave “nearly 150 feet long” in the middle of the bay as being the Fairies’ Cave (Shields Daily News 1925: 5).

This does seem to imply incredibly localised knowledge that has now been lost.

Ghosts at Marsden Grotto?

Further south, you can find Marsden Beach, home of the Marsden Grotto. This is actually a cave bar pub, so-named because the pub is in, you guessed it, a cave. Lead miner Jack Bates lived in the cave on the beach. In 1782, he blasted the cave into a larger one. Initially, he ran a tea room from the space, but eventually, he moved into the smuggling business.

Bates died in 1792, but Pater Allan bought the Grotto in 1826 and expanded it. The building is now widely thought to be haunted, with people reporting knocking from inside the cellar, rattling chains in the bar, and whispering in empty rooms.

There are still other caves in the bay, though they’re more often used as impromptu toilets than smuggler’s dens.

What do we make of these north east coast caves?

Given the proximity of Tynemouth, Marsden Bay and Cullercoats Bay to the Tyne, you can see why they’d be popular with smugglers. It’s also interesting that Tynemouth and Cullercoats appear to have such legends of wizards, witches, ghosts and fairies associated with the caves. What better way to deter people from poking around your smuggling locations?

The caves in Cullercoats Bay are the most easily accessible – just head down to the beach and walk right up to them. Make sure you know the tide times beforehand. And if you pop to the Marsden Grotto, you can also enjoy a spot of lunch while you’re there.

Tynemouth is the cave that continues to fascinate me. We still don’t know where, or even what, it is. And I’ll never stop being intrigued by the name ‘Jingling Geordie’s Hole’. Maybe it was part of the priory’s underground passages, maybe it was used by wreckers. Either way, it looks like the dragons won’t need to scare anyone off anytime soon.

What do you make of these smugglers’ caves? Let me know below!

References

Barratt, Nick (2013), ‘Thomas Armstrong: the smuggler king of Cullercoats’, The National Archives, https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/thomas-armstrong-the-smuggler-king-of-cullercoats/.

The Faery Folklorist (2010), ‘Fairies Caves, Cullercoats’, The Faery Folklorist, http://faeryfolklorist.blogspot.com/2010/05/fairies-caves-cullercoats.html.

Matthews, Rupert (2009), Mysterious Northumberland, Derby: Breedon Books.

Reed, Lloyd G. (2014), Cullercoats Village 1292 – 1950, self published.

Reynolds, Hazel (1989), Ghosts and Legends of Northumbria, Morpeth: Coquet Editions.

Richardson, M.A. (1844), The local historian’s table book, of remarkable occurrences, historical facts, traditions, legendary and descriptive ballads [&c.] connected with the Counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham, Volume 2, London: J.R. Smith.

Shields Daily Gazette (1928), ‘Mystery of Man’s Death: Body Washed Ashore at Cullercoats’, Shields Daily Gazette, 19 October, p. 4.

Shields Daily News (1925), ‘Cullercoats: Mr Garson Continues His Ramble’, Shields Daily News, 18 February, p. 5.

Waine, Harry C. (1942), ‘A Tall Tale’, Shields Evening News, 3 October, p. 3.