Mitchelstown Cave, the largest ever discovered in the British Isles, is not situated at the town of that name, in county Cork, but 10 miles away, in Tipperary, on the road to Cahir. Its entrance is in a small Limestone hill in the broad vale of the Blackwater, midway between the Knockmealdown Mountains and the Sandstone ridges and tables of the Galtees. The cave was laid open in the course of quarrying operations in 1833, from which time to the present the work of exploration has gone on progressively, if at long intervals, and may, perhaps, continue until the extent of the passages known is considerably enlarged. It seems now to be entirely forgotten that the spot has been famous from time immemorial for a wonderful stalactite cavern. In October 1777, Arthur Young was taken into a cave, known as Skeheenarinky, after the townland, but the old Irish name of which was Oonakareaglisha. "The opening," he says, "is a cleft of rock in a Limestone hill, so narrow as to be difficult to get into it. I descended by a ladder of about twenty steps, and then found myself in a vault of 100 feet long and 50 or 60 high: a small hole, on the left, leads from this a winding course of, I believe, not less than half an Irish mile." He goes on to describe the beautiful scenery of the cave, which, he says, is much superior to the Peak Cavern in Derbyshire, "and Lord Kingsborough, who has viewed the Grot d'Aucel in Burgundy, says that it is not to be compared with it."[5] The odd thing is that the very existence of this cavern seems to have been forgotten since the discovery of its much finer neighbour. Yet the trees and brushwood guarding its mouth are in full view of the well-frequented entrance to the other cave; and Dr. Lyster Jameson, who was with Monsieur Martel on his visit in 1895, told me some years ago that an opening had been pointed out to him into a lower series of caves, which I have little hesitation in identifying with Young's cavern and the cave mouth I allude to.

A GREAT PILLAR: MITCHELSTOWN CAVERN.

Photo by E. A. Baker.

A FAIRY LANTERN: MITCHELSTOWN CAVERN.

Photo by E. A. Baker.

Dr. C. A. Hill and I visited the spot in August 1905, intending to go through all the accessible parts of the huge series now known collectively as Mitchelstown Cave, and also to examine the series referred to by Dr. Jameson, who had been unable to undertake their exploration. Our impression was that little or nothing was known of the latter series, and it was not until after our return from Ireland that we were startled and puzzled by turning up an account in The Postchaise Companion (1805 ed., pp. 301, 302) of a cave in this place already known and celebrated thirty years before the discovery of the Mitchelstown Cave. The explanation probably is that the guides find one cave a more profitable investment than two. To show the second (or rather the first, since the other is the usurper) would involve twice as much labour, but would hardly bring in twice the income. Since 1833, then, the original cavern has been suppressed, so successfully that even the omniscient Baddeley never suspected that there are two series, although he had read Young's description and confused it with the other. Dr. Hill let me down a few feet into the old cave-mouth, just such a narrow slit as Young depicts; but we found that the rock was cut away immediately beneath, and without more hauling power, the only way to get down was to use a long ladder, and this we could not obtain. The guide told us that the hole led into nothing of any interest, and that the entrance had been used as a receptacle for deceased dogs and other excreta. This effectually took away any wish to pursue our researches in that direction for the present. Still, the old cave ought not to be lost sight of; and we propose, if no one else undertakes the work, to explore the lower series on some future visit to Ireland. The unscientific explorers of a hundred years ago may have left discoveries to future workers as important as those which remained for so many years after the early explorations in the neighbouring great cave.

What was done in the latter during the first year after the discovery may be read in an article by Dr. Apjohn in the Dublin Penny Journal for December 27, 1834, an article reproduced from the Dublin Geological Journal, vol. i. Dr. Apjohn carried out a most elaborate and painstaking survey to points considerably beyond the second great cavity, now known as the "House of Lords," but failed to reach "O'Leary's Cave," the key of the farther ramifications, or to explore the tunnels connected with "The River." His plan, worked out to scale, and showing the differences of level with great minuteness, remained the only map of the cave until M. Martel's survey in 1895. Meanwhile various adventurers had got to more distant points, particularly to the long chain of caverns running east to Brogden's, at the end of which M. Martel's chart stops. The French explorer does not seem to have broken any fresh ground; but his plan, which appeared in The Irish Naturalist for April 1896, with an account of his visit, was a brilliant achievement, especially when the short time at his disposal is considered, six hours for the whole of the cavern. Parts of this chart were only hastily sketched in, either from a rapid survey or from information supplied by the guide, as M. Martel explained to me in a conversation some time ago, and errors of detail were, under these conditions, unavoidable. For instance, "O'Leary's Cave" is much larger than appears on the plan, and the "Chimney" is not situated at the far end of a passage, but actually opens in the floor of "O'Leary's Cave." The caves running east, again—O'Callaghan's and Brogden's—are not such a simple series of straight passages as they seem on the chart; our guide had considerable difficulty in threading his way among the various bifurcations. As will transpire later, there is a mystery connected with the name of "Cust's Cave," the real Cust's being in a totally different part of the series, and a different chamber altogether in shape. Unfortunately we did not go prepared to carry out any survey, believing that all this had been done; so that we can at the most point out some places where the existing plans are at fault. We were also unfortunate in not being prepared to take a large number of photographs, the accounts we had read not leading us to anticipate the actual grandeur and extent of the scenery. M. Martel compares the Mitchelstown Cave with such famous continental caverns as those of Adelsberg, Padirac, Dargilan, and Han-sur-Lesse, and it comes off but poorly in such a comparison. I have seen his lantern slides of these caves, and after exploring all the most beautiful caves discovered as yet in England, I venture to say there is not one English cave that would not come off badly if set beside any of these. Compared, however, with other British caverns, that of Mitchelstown can hold its own easily; though individual chambers may be surpassed, there is nothing like the same extent of brilliant subterranean scenery anywhere else in these islands.

The tourist portion of the cavern, a fraction of the whole, but yet a considerable extent of underground passages, is deservedly much frequented. The spacious vault, nicknamed the "House of Commons," vies in dimensions and dignity with those in the Peak of Derbyshire, but it is far surpassed by the "House of Lords." Seventeen massy columns of pure white stalactite, surmounting enormous cones of terraced stalagmite, tower from floor to roof of this impressive dome, some 140 feet in span and 70 feet high. The grandeur of its height is lost somewhat through the mountain of fallen blocks that rises from the entrance almost to the apex of the roof. Behind this vast accumulation a sort of ambulatory runs round under the walls, opening here and there into side chapels and irregular cavities, all bountifully adorned with the fairy-like work of the Limestone carbonate. The so-called "Tower of Babel" is a majestic pillar rising from the summit of a pyramidal mass of stalagmite, 40 feet in circumference, that being also the measure of its total height. A crowd of other Limestone freaks, some aptly and some incongruously nicknamed, and many extremely beautiful, are found in this chamber.

The cavities and passages that lie to the north-east of the first great chamber are not often visited. They start from "Sadlier's Cave," which is not large but bewilderingly picturesque, and contains a superb pillar, "Lot's Wife," almost of the prodigious size of the "Tower." The "Kingston Gallery" is a straight rift, nearly 300 feet long, but only two or three feet wide, with sheets of snowy white sweeping down the walls, and breaking into whole garlands of scrolls and pennons and curtains, which in places have been thrown right across the gallery, dividing it into lofty cells. Manholes, actually, had to be cut through these diaphanous partitions to create a passage. From the cave at the end, a lower passage, the Sand Cave, comes back in a parallel direction to the point of junction, and from the quantities of fine sand on its bed, was evidently an important stream-course after the Kingston Gallery was drained of its waters. It has one unique feature, the succession of parallel rifts, called the "Closets," which are connected together by rents in their dividing walls. Some of these are extremely narrow, and by candlelight it is impossible to see any limit to their height, depth, or length. Similar widenings of the master joints and degradation of the Limestone separating them, are a special feature of the Mitchelstown Cave, and the key to its ground-plan, with its maze of right-angles.

The great eastern vault, the Garret, which is only 19 feet below the level of the entrance, does not fall, as stated by M. Martel, towards a series of choked swallets, that originally carried the waters farther down, but rises towards inlets from the surface. Its fretted roof has fallen in at the upper end. A little to the south is a nameless series of charming vestibules, grottoes, and tunnels, meandering towards the insignificant lakelet called the "River." Here we spent the whole of our first day. It is possible, we learned, to reach the easternmost series of caverns by this route, which also takes one into the square cavity designated as "Cust's Cave" on M. Martel's chart. We chose the other way, that is, through the passage from the "House of Lords" to the "Cathedral."

In the tangle of contrary passages into which this leads we lost ourselves several times, in the absence of the guide, and only recovered the thread by careful observation with the compass. Eventually we found the way into "O'Leary's Cave," which struck us as one of the most impressive chambers in the whole cavern. It is not only much larger than is shown on the plan, but different in shape. Apparently it is the most recent of all in formation, although this may be only an appearance caused by the falling in of the roof. Unlike the other parts, where every bit of dÉbris is sealed down by a glistening layer of stalagmite, this great cavity is heaped high with loose fragments, as free from incrustation as if the ceiling had collapsed yesterday. So wild and vast is the configuration of "O'Leary's Cave" that, standing on the lower side and looking across a depression in the middle to the ascending ground opposite, one fancied oneself, in the dim candlelight, gazing across a valley to a range of hills in the distance. We spent some time vainly searching for the horizontal tunnel supposed to end at the "Chimney," and before the guide joined us were lucky enough to hit upon a string of chambers that seem never to have been entered before. These run, so far as we could make out without actual measurement, right over the O'Callaghan series. In fact there were openings in the floor which we might have explored but for the aggressive and tenacious clay bedaubing everything, apparently leading down to these nether passages. Brilliant draperies swept down to the bold masses of stalagmite below the walls, and long crystalline wands hung from the roof in thousands, so that we could not move without committing havoc in this pendulous forest.

Conducted by the guide, we now descended the "Chimney" into the tortuous passages leading to the "Scotchman's Cave," which lies under O'Leary's. It is a small but very beautiful chamber, giving one the idea that it has been hollowed out in a mountain of Parian marble. Now we struck into the long series running east through "O'Callaghan's Cave" to the farthest point yet reached. This was one of the principal channels by which the ancient waters descended, from openings now unknown and inaccessible, to the labyrinth of forsaken waterways we had left behind. Our guide, who astonished us by the rapidity with which he got over difficult ground, was unable to make very speedy progress here. The ramifications are extremely hard to unravel, and he had only been in this part twice before, in 1895 with M. Martel, and twenty-five years earlier, as a boy, with his father. Eventually, after many wanderings, we reached "Brogden's Cave," where hitherto all direct progress had stopped. On the south side (not on the north, as shown in the chart) is the "Chapel," which M. Martel rightly described as the most beautiful thing in the whole cavern. It is an arched recess, canopied with stalagmite of the purest and most delicate lustre.

Whilst my companion rested, I joined the guide, who was hunting for the passage to a cave where his father had taken him thirty-five years ago. We discovered the opening at last, and after wriggling and squirming round innumerable twists and corners, we dropped over a low cliff, beyond which a short wriggle brought us into a long and lofty cave, magnificently walled and pillared with snowy calcite. Floor, walls, and roof were a spotless white, wrought into intricate reliefs and embroideries by the flow of the freakish stalagmite. The guide stated that this was "Cust's Cave," and the one beyond, where our progress stopped, he called the "Demon's Cave." M. Martel's chart shows a "Cust's Cave" of a totally different shape and size, near the "River"; and, as there is no mention extant of any cave beyond Brogden's, I take it that this, the real Cust's, was unknown to him. Unfortunately I had followed the guide without bringing the plan or a compass, unaware that we were going so far from the known parts of the cavern; and now, to my disgust, the guide was unable to find the way out. Twice he descended into a hole at our end of the cave, and emerged with the intelligence, "It's not there, sir." We ransacked every opening in wall and floor, but failed to hit on any exit whatever. The guide grew alarmed, and rushed off to the farther end of the cave, wondering if we had completely lost our sense of direction. He tried whistling; but the hundreds of feet of rock between us and our companion were well able to guard their ancient silence. Tired with these exertions, he next proposed that we should put out the lights and rest for a while. Whether his idea was to husband the only provisions we had, I could not say; but at any rate the situation did look serious, since rescuers might have taken days to discover our position in this remote corridor, of whose very existence, probably, our guide was the only man in Ireland that knew anything. But where there is a way in, there is a way out, as I very well knew from several similar experiences; and after a pretty bad half-hour, we did manage to recover the trail, and got back to our friend, who had been completely mystified by our disappearance, and was almost as relieved as we by our return. After many hours of fatiguing work, we were glad to follow our guide back through the labyrinthine passages, by the most direct route to the open air.

Our chief regret was that we had relied too much on the completeness of previous surveys, and had not taken materials for correcting the map. We had secured many photographs of the earlier chambers, but had not taken the camera into the innermost cavities, where photography would be most profitable. M. Martel's dictum can still be endorsed that there is a great field for research in the Mitchelstown Cavern.