The Burren and Doolin Cave

Drove out to 'The Burren' today. An area that is made of limestone and shale... similar result as WA's southwest.... lots of erosion and caves.

Went into Doolin's cave. It was discovered by two 18/20-year-olds from England in 1952. They were on a day off from studying caves etc with a group in the area. They found a stream and wanted to see where it went... found an opening and went in... on their bellies and knees with only cotton overalls and helmets with gas lights. No shoes and no spare gas for their lights.
After about an hour they decided to turn their lights off to conserve gas so continued on their bellies. About 30mins later when their voices started echoing, they knew they had reached an opening, so they turned their lights on to have a look.... and what a sight they found... A 7.3m stalactite hanging from the ceiling!!!

It is the 3rd largest stalactite in the world and the largest in Europe. It is the most easily accessible though... in the 70 years since it was discovered, it has grown 7mm. It is on its 4th evolution of stalagmite... the stalagmite is laying on clay and the previous 3 have slipped/been washed down the cave floor.

As if this wasn't enough, they wanted to see what else there was so continued to follow the stream, again on bellies and found another opening... no stalactites or stalagmites but it is known as a bell cave because of its shape. In the walls there is a coral fossil. They did continue further but the crevasse closed up to only an arms width so they turned around and went back.

They had been gone for 9hrs but decided not to tell anyone. Dinner with their colleagues and a few Guinness's meant that pact didn't last long... they all came back the following day.

3 years ago they had a 'birthday' and unveiled a plaque. One of the founders attended and wanted to do the crawl again but due to changes for easier access and protection, he couldn't do the original crawl... he was 90 years old!!! He did do the tour down the 200feet.

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