Kitley caves, Devon, June 08

[lycos]

Hi everyone, this place has raised a lot of interest in local circles going by the chat, so thought I should post this to satisfy some of the curiosity.

Kitley Caves are a collection of three caves, The main 'Show cave' ( otherwise known as 'Shelter cave' ) was originally opened up in the eighteenth century after it had been discovered by quarrying, and is very interesting because of the multiple archaeological finds. Remains from the Stone Age include human artifacts and bones of elephant, hippo, hyena and cave bear, but also Bronze Age artifacts were found here. In the 1970's they were opened to the public where you could take a self-guided tour, going in one entrance, through a series of grottoes, and emerging through a second entrance. After finding the first entrance and looking at some graphic representations of the cave, the second entrance (or the exit?) is where I believe we ended up, although it looks to have either collased or been back filled (evidence of work being done found being done in he cave) The two other caves are known as 'Bobs cave' and funnily enough 'no name' cave, of which I could find little info. Kitley caves closed to the public in 2000.

Myself and MrB decided to take a look one evening after work (Thanks for driving again mate, and for making me laugh so much my ribs hurt) , not sure what we were looking for we parked up and set off on foot in the general direction trying to make sense of the maps, trusting MrB's instincts we found ourselves going slightly off course ( he later redeemed himself by giving a most amusing impression of Kurt Russel in 'Romancing the stone' sliding down the bank in the mud) but eventually we found the entrance, mooched around further and found the other, and decided it was worth a go, if only to see how far it went...

Just a few pics as was quite tight...
This was just inside the entrance, and was taken using the natural light so you could see the mineral deposits as we did...

Looking down the ladder towards MrB...the floor dropping away steeply...

The roof of the cave, wooden poles spanning the gap, dont seem to be supporting much, extremely rotten in places...

More deposits pouring through the ceiling...

Looking back to the wooden ladder up to the entrance / exit...

A bit tight in places...

Small cave leading off, didn't go anywhere though...

Been trying to figure out which way up this supposed to be??

Was an explore all the same, although not the gem we'd hoped for, we'd managed it...
Thanks for looking and hope you enjoy, catch you all soon,
Lycos.

 

[Foxylady]

Oh excellent! I've been wanting to see pics of this place since we talked about it on the Plymouth meet-up thread. Love those mineral deposits, especially the copper. Nice one guys!

 

[graybags]

Kitley

Interesting report chaps

Only went here once when it was open,not one of the better show caves, only took a few minutes to walk around, but impressive light show.If memory serves me right, the backfilled bit is a dig that was never completed, a mammoth task to remove the spoil if you'll excuse the pun.

Bob's Cave is named after Bob Cawthorne an old friend from the Plymouth Caving Group who now lives in Spain.

There are numerous other caves in the area if you know where to look.....

G

 

[*MrB*]

Nice write up mate, was a fun trip out actually! Only so much you can show inside a cave but anyway....

A few piccies

 

[smileysal]

That looks great, I've heard about these caves but never seen inside them. Excellent pics. It does look a bit tight in places. Any idea why they closed to the public?

Cheers,

Sal

 

[*MrB*]

I'm not too sure Sal, but I think a decline in British tourism around the late 90's early 00's led to a lot of closures of tourist sites like this. The shire horse centre not too far away also closed around the same time. Both are not quite in plymouth and could easily be missed so i guess as it got quieter they closed the place

 

[borntobemild]

Remember going there when we were on holiday in Devon about 1998.

It was fairly uncommercialised (no fibreglass dinosaurs) as far as i remember and a bit out of the way. Maybe a bit of a disappointment for anyone looking for dramatic waterfalls.

We really enjoyed it. Lovely peaceful location and you could just wander about on your own.

Having said that, the highlight was watching a fat american tourist in loud shorts fall in the river.

Real shame it has closed.

 

[lycos]

thanks for the comments...

Thanks everone, cool pics MrB, like you say, not a lot to see really, I think I must have been there before on some sort of schooltrip or something, seemed the sort of place you'd get dragged to by teachers, couldn't remember much about it which was one of the reasons we went for a nose, n no BTBM no plastic dinosaurs, n no overweight americans getting wet either, just the pair of us getting covered in mud, there was a building near by which we assume was the museum in its day, little more than a shed though and now empty nice place though if you wanna get away fom city life for a couple hours...

 

[*MrB*]

Would like to re-visit sometime and try and see a bit more. As said was nice to see it had not been too commercial when it was open by the look of things. Even the 'museum' seemed to be just a glorified garden shed. Looks like it would have sold small souviners, refreshments etc during it's day. Now seems to be used by a local householder as a wood store or something similar. Defo worth a visit for some peace and quiet and wander around in the countryside

 

[spikey]

Be in the Shed as you call it lol it still a museum. it still got old bones in glass cases, rock samples etc. A old feller who lives near by looks after it cant remember his name thought