Hairy Bob's Cave
Scarborough 

Scarborough Castle, Scarborough Harbour, The Rotunda Museum and many other attractions are of interest to the curious tourist and those with more academic interest in the history of this famous town but an insignificant hole in the rock has been the source of myth and legend to local townsfolk for over a hundred years.

Hairy Bob’s Cave is a hole in the rock, approximately a metre deep, at the foot of the Castle.  It has no geological merit; non of the grandiose attributes of the natural caverns of North Yorkshire and one wonders why such an insignificant man-made artifice is the source of such interest. It’s origins and purpose are shrouded in mystery.  It is clearly man-made.  But who made it and why? Who was Hairy Bob?

One theory is that the man made hole in the rock was nothing more than a shelter from the crashing North Sea Waves, chiselled by one of the workers during periods of respite from the construction of Royal Albert Drive, which was formally completed in 1890.

Lacking in romance; lacking in interest - hardly the stuff of legend!

Other theories put Hairy Bob firmly in the frame.

It is beyond doubt that there was a family Bobb in Scarborough at this period.  It is also beyond doubt that one of the family was known locally as Hairy Bob for obvious reasons.  Being relatively recent in history there are well documented commentaries of “Hairy Bob” as a shabby old man, a door to door purveyor of “Yellowstone” in the 1930s, used at the time for the cleaning of doorsteps.  This Yellowstone or sandstone was gathered from the rock falls on the castle cliffs.

So Hairy Bob clearly existed.  But did he build the “cave” and if so why?

Some say that he was a rather weak, ineffectual fellow, subject to the tirades of a virago of a wife and that the cave was chiselled out by him as a sanctuary from her wrath.  Perhaps she told him to find a hole and crawl in it!

Another theory is that it was chiselled out by a local schoolboy who subsequently went on to become verger at St. Mary’s Parish Church. Yet a further theory is that the original Hairy Bob’s cave was little more than a hole in the ground, a little to the left of the present shelter, and that this is now filled and marked only by a pile of stones.

Some many years ago a door and two windows were put at the front of the cave.  Is it of interest?  Only you can say.

Seekers of a bijou residence with sea views are of course welcome.

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