Cape Buller () is a rugged

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Jo ...

forming the west side of the entrance to the Bay of Isles on the north coast of

South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

. It was discovered and named in 1775 by a British expedition under

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

. Macdonald Cove sits just to the west of Cape Buller on the north coast of the island. The cove is south-southeast of the Welcome Islands and has important fossil occurrences on its periphery. It was named by the

UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) an ...

in 1982 after David I.M. Macdonald, a

British Antarctic Survey The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is the United Kingdom's national polar research institute. It has a dual purpose, to conduct polar science, enabling better understanding of list of global issues, global issues, and to provide an active prese ...

geologist in charge of field work on South Georgia, 1975–76 and 1976–77. Sitka Bay sits west of Macdonald Dove, west of Cape Buller. The names Sitka Bay and Buller Bay have both appeared for this feature on maps for many years. Following a survey of South Georgia in 1951 and 1952, the

South Georgia Survey The South Georgia Survey was a series of expeditions to survey and map the island of South Georgia, led by Duncan Carse between 1951 and 1957. Although South Georgia had been commercially exploited as a whaling station during the first half of t ...

reported that this feature is known locally as Sitka Bay, and the name is approved on that basis.

References

Headlands of South Georgia {{SouthGeorgia-geo-stub