Ireland

Heading north out of Cork towards Dublin, after an hour we turn off to visit the Mitchelstown Caves.

There's a small car park next to a farmhouse, with the ticket office the sitting room window 😊 It turns out the same family discovered and have looked after these caves over the years.

Mitchelstown Caves was discovered on the 3rd of May 1833, by Michael Condon who was quarrying limestone when he accidentally dropped his crowbar into a crevice. He stooped down to pull out a few boulders to retrieve the bar, next minute he found himself looking down into a vast series of underground chambers, passages and caverns.

Michael was determined to explore his discovery, accompanied by two boys named Sheely, using only candles, a rope and a burning turf tied to a string to judge depths of crevasses, they cautiously entered the cave. After spending hours exploring, the cave turned out to be far bigger than they were expecting and in attempting to return to the safety of the entrance their candles burned out leaving them in complete darkness for twelve hours before the father of the two boys found them. This is how this astonishing phenomenon of nature was discovered, which might otherwise have remained unknown forever.

In the early 1960’s the decision was taken to develop the cave in order to make access easier. Electricity and footpaths were installed and completed by 1972, making it the first show cave in Ireland developed for the public. During development great care was taken to retain the character and natural beauty of the cave and environs and let nature speak for itself.Read more