Cayman Brac is a good example of a small oceanic carbonate island that has experienced cycles of submergence and emergence during the Tertiary and Quaternary. It is well karstified at the surface and underground. During three Tertiary cycles, carbonate rocks were deposited, uplifted and karstified, buried as paleokarst with caymanite fillings. The island was then uplifted with a minor tilt, and Quaternary limestone deposited on its coastal platform. It is girdled by cliffs with a marine notch at +6 m, the Sangamon (125 ka) high sea stand. Phytokarst is well developed on the coastal platform and the interior plateau. Caves occur all over the island. Most prominent are (i) Notch caves, developed at or 1 - 2 m above the Sangamon notch, and (ii) Upper caves, at varying elevations higher in the cliff faces. Notch caves and some upper caves accord to the flank margin model of speleogenesis for small islands, but speleothem dating indicates that many at the Notch are, in fact, > 400 ka in age, having developed at a previous high sea stand. There has been speleothem deposition and dissolution in all caves. Major dissolution and bedrock facetting is attributed to cycles of condensation corrosion, which are modelled from field meteorological and hydrochemical data. "Bellholes", (a rare, very distinctive negative form in caves) are attributed to microbial activity utilising condensation waters in entrance twilight zones. © 2004 Gebrüder Borntraeger.