Charterhouse Cave, on the

Mendip Hills The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, is the deepest

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

in southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

Charterhouse Cave was first excavated in 1972. By 1977 the Sidcot School Speleological Society had reached Bat Chamber, although the first main breakthrough into the system was made in 1982. Active exploration continues and breakthroughs were made in April 2008 when of passage big enough to walk through was discovered, and again when the Portal Pool

Sump A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cave ...

was passed in May 2009 revealing another of passage. Continued exploration in 2010 and 2011 brought the cave to its current length and depth

Access

The cave is situated on land owned by

Somerset Wildlife Trust Somerset Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the county of Somerset, England. The trust, which was established in 1964, aims to safeguard the county's wildlife and wild places for this and future generations and manages almost 80 nature ...

. Because of the various well-preserved formations in the cave, the entrance blockhouse is kept locked and access is restricted to those with permits issued by member clubs of the Charterhouse Caving Company. For the same reason, no novices or cavers aged under 16 are allowed to enter.

Description

The cave has three large chambers, Midsummer Chamber, The Citadel, and Times Square; The Citadel is almost as large as the chambers in GB Cave and

Lamb Leer Lamb Leer () is a 14.59 hectare (36.04 acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest between East Harptree and Priddy in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, notified in 1983. The cavern is a fragment of a very ancient major cave system which now ...

.Hendry, P., ''Charterhouse Cave goes on and on''
Mendip Times magazine
September 2009 There are a number of long, fairly straight passages which are approximately across and the same high. Various parts of the cave contain delicate formations, including Forbidden Passage, Midsummer Chamber, The Citadel, The Grotto of the Singing Stal, and the First and Second Inlets. When Portal Pool Sump was passed in May 2009, about of new passage was discovered, as well as a number of side-passages. Surveys conducted after the breakthrough in May 2009 show approximately of passage, with an estimated 500 m unsurveyed plus a number of leads yet to be explored. The surveys have also confirmed the depth at over . The stream in nearby GB Cave flows into Charterhouse Cave and ultimately rises near

Gough's Cave Gough's Cave ( ) is located in Cheddar Gorge on the Mendip Hills, in Cheddar, Somerset, England. The cave is deep and is long, and contains a variety of large chambers and rock formations. It contains the Cheddar Yeo, the largest underground ...

Cheddar Gorge Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar, Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years ...

, approximately away.

Fauna

There is a hole in the concrete blockhouse over the entrance to the cave to allow the entrance of

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

s. The insect life found within the cave is fairly typical of caves on the Mendip Hills, including a number of

troglophile Troglofauna are small cave-dwelling animals that have adapted to their dark surroundings. Troglofauna and stygofauna are the two types of subterranean fauna (based on life-history). Both are associated with subterranean environments – troglofau ...

s and

troglobite A troglobite (or, formally, troglobiont) is an animal species, or population of a species, strictly bound to underground habitats, such as caves. These are separate from species that mainly live in above-ground habitats but are also able to live u ...

s such as the

freshwater shrimp Freshwater shrimp are any shrimp which live in fresh water. This includes: *Any Caridea (shrimp) which live in fresh water, especially the family Atyidae *Species in the genus ''Macrobrachium'' :*'' Macrobrachium ohione'', the Ohio River shrimp : ...

(''niphargus fontanus'') and the

springtail Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ento ...

(''onychiurus schoetti'').

References

External links