Dunmore Cave facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Dunmore Cave |
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| Dearc Fearna | |
Cave entrance
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| Location | Castlecomer Road, County Kilkenny |
| Depth | 150 feet (46 m) |
| Length | 310 m (1,030 ft) |
| Geology | Carboniferous Limestone |
| Entrances | 1 |
| Access | Show cave access only |
Dunmore Cave (from Irish Dún Mór, meaning 'great fort') is a limestone solutional cave in Ballyfoyle, County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is formed in Lower Carboniferous (Viséan) limestone of the Clogrenan Formation. It is a show cave open to the public, particularly well known for its rich archaeological discoveries and for being the site of a Viking massacre in 928.
Show cave
The caves are located to the east of and close to the N78 Kilkenny–Castlecomer road and about 11 km (6.8 mi) north of Kilkenny City. The entrance is in the townland of Mohill, where a tourist centre has been established at the site. Overlooking the River Dinan valley, it is found in an isolated outcrop of limestone on the Castlecomer Plateau.
Dunmore is not one of the largest of Ireland's caves. It contains just a quarter of a mile of passages and at its deepest point, it descends to 150 ft (46 m), but it possesses some fine calcite formations. The most spectacular is the Market Cross, a distinctly cross-shaped column over 19 ft (5.8 m) high.
Archaeological study
The earliest writings on the cave of an archaeological nature came from the bishop George Berkeley, whose report dated 1706 detailed a visit that he made to the cave as a boy. The essay was not published until 1871. In 1869 Arthur Wynne Foot, a physician, made an archaeological visit to the cave with Rev. James Graves and Peter Burtchaell and discovered large quantities of human remains, which they collected. In his reports, Foot meticulously documented his findings, and culled references from the writings of researchers over the preceding 120 years.
In 1999, a hoard of 43 silver and bronze items was discovered in a rocky cleft deep in the cave. Archaeologists dated this hoard, consisting of silver, ingots and conical buttons woven from fine silver, to 970 AD.
See also
In Spanish: Cueva de Dunmore para niños
