The entrance to Decco’s Cave, Whiterock Beach, Killiney,

He had a ‘crying chair’ made of stones.

Sibling of Daedalus writes:

In the early 20th century, White Rock Cave, Killiney/Dalkey (above) was the home of a mysterious hermit who slept in a hammock.

Some say that he was a veteran of the Boer War, others of the Great War; others that he was an eccentric member of the Kavanagh family who lived nearby at Retreat Cottage. But whatever his origin and history, the name by which he was popularly known as was ‘Decco’, and his cave as ‘Decco’s Cave’.

The cave was a great source of mystery to local children. He had a habit of chasing marauding infant intruders up the beach with an axe; perhaps this was where the other rumour, of White Rock Cave being the home of flesh-eating bandits, originated?

Nowadays Decco is long dead, you’re more likely to find cannabis than cannibals in White Rock Cave and the only mysterious hermit in the locality is Enya, who can afford a grander bolthole.

 

Pic: DunLaoghaire.ie