The Lummelunda Cave ( sv, Lummelundagrottan, also known as the ''Rövarkulan'', "The Robbers' Den") is located in a nature reserve at Lummelunda north of

Visby Visby () is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably th ...

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

, Sweden. The explored part of this

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

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 ...

is almost , making it one of the longest caves in Sweden. It is created by the drainage water from the Martebo mire. The water forms a stream with its outlet in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. In the 15th to 19th centuries, mills and an ironwork were set up by the stream. Although the entrance of the cave has been known for centuries, the main part of it was discovered by three teenage boys during the 1940s–50s. It is visited by around 100,000 people every year and is one of the major tourist attractions on Gotland.

History

The cave was most likely formed before the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

. The water that creates it is drainage from the Martebo mire which is approximately east of Lummelunda. Most of the water runs as a stream, the ''Lummelundsån'', through the north part of the cave system, exiting the limestone cliffs (known as the ''Klint'') a few hundred meters from the coastline. The stream was much larger and more forceful before the mire, once the largest on Gotland, was drained at the end of the 19th century. The remaining drainage is led through an underground canal, dropping from Martebo mire to Lummelunda, at 400 liters/second. The stream has been used for industry since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. According to an undocumented litigation in 1778, a mill was built at Lummelunda in 1418. The oldest reliable record is from 1594, where three mills are listed at the stream. In the 1620s, six mills were in use at the ''Lummelundsån''. The cave itself has been known as long as the stream has been used.

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

wrote about the cave during his journey to Gotland in the summer of 1741. The part of the cave where the stream has its outlet, the Linné's Cave, is named after him. The Linné's Cave is wide, high and about long. The bottom of it is filled with water. The Lummelunda Cave is mentioned in the 1917 cave investigation made by

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

and Gotlander Henrik Munthe, where it is called ''Kytt-Janns källare'' ("Kytt-Jann's cellar"). The first documented attempt to explore the cave was made in 1924 by zoologist Torsten Gislén, but he never got further than into the cave despite several later attempts.

''The Three Boys''

The breakthrough in finding the cave system happened in 1948, when three teenage boys, Lars Olsson, Örjan Håkansson and Percy Nilsson, known as "The Three Boys" (''De tre pojkarna''), found an entrance to the rest of the cave. For seven years they explored the cave on Sundays using matches, candles, planks and a small boat to get deeper into the system. After having explored the first hall of the cave for two years, a large block of stone fell from one of the walls, widening a small opening in the cliff. This led to a long passage (later called "The Boys' Passage", ''Pojkarnas gång'') into the first large cave hall, "The Hall of the Mountain King" (''Bergakungens sal''). From 1959 onwards, this hall became the location for the start of the guided tours. A bit further in is "The Chapel" (''Kapellet''), named thus by the boys who thought it looked like a church, where their exploration was hindered by a lake. It was not until 1955, that they managed to get another further in, using an inflatable boat. On 21January 2011, "The Three Boys" were honored in a ceremony at the Campus Gotland. Lars Olsson died on 19 October 2011, and Percy Nilsson died in December 2013. All three were made honorary members of the Swedish Speleology Society (''Sveriges Speleologförbund, SSF'').

Further explorations

In 1959, a long tunnel was made from the surface to "The Hall of the Mountain King" to make the cave more accessible to visitors. Another of tunnels and the largest hall so far, was discovered by cave divers in September 1985, after they had passed four underwater passages (or " traps").

Geology and geography

The Lummelunda Cave is situated in Lummelunda, about north of Visby. Its opening is behind the Lummelunda Manor at the old mill ''Överstekvarn'' ("Topmost Mill). The cave is a

cave, formed by surface water trickling down through cracks in the limestones of the Lower Visby Formation. When the surface water meets the

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

, it starts to dissolve the limestone and widen the cracks into passages and halls. It is one of the longest caves in Sweden; the explored part of it is almost long. 33

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

s have been found in the main canal leading the water from Martebo mire to the cave. In the area west of the cliff there are five springs. After the draining of the mire the flow of water in the canal have decreased significantly, from in 1948, to in 1977. This has caused some of the sinkholes to disappear. During dry summers there is an impending danger that the cave is completely drained. The cave is roughly divided into two parts: one dry, also called the

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

system, and a wet, active part. A large number of fossils and stalactite formations can be found in the dry part. The cave has a relatively stable climate with a humidity of 95–100%. According to a source from 1989, the temperature is on average and points out that fluctuations in temperature have been noticed as a result of the many visitors. A source from 2011, states that the temperature is .

Nature reserve

A nature reserve to protect the Lummelunda Cave, was established on 20March 1989. The reserve is ; it includes the cave and the corresponding area above the ground and is called the Lummelunda Cave Nature Reserve (''Naturreservatet Lummelundagrottan'').

Biology

At least 83 different species of animals including worms, spiders, centipedes, crayfish, beetles, butterflies, fish, mice and bats, have been found in the cave. Plants grow near the artificial lights in the outer parts of the cave. Since the plants are not a natural part of it, they are removed to keep the environment as original as possible. The many visitors also have a negative effect on the biology of the cave. The landscape above the cave, which is also part of the nature reserve, is characterized by the

ification of the area. It is bisected by a steep cliff running in a north–south direction through the reserve. The eastern part on top of the cliff, is covered in

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

forest, and the western part between the cliff and the shore is grassland with

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

trees.

Tourism and tours

The Lummelunda Cave has been open to the public since 1959. It is visited by about 100,000 people each year, making it the most visited cave in Sweden, and one of the major tourist attractions on Gotland. "The Mountain King's Hall" and "The Chapel" (these combined are called the Visitors' Cave) are included in the regular tours. It is also possible to go another into the cave system with the special tours. These tours require a trained guide and visitors have to wear special gear and use small boats.

Gallery

File:Lummelundagrottan.jpg, The

stalactite A stalactite (, ; from the Greek 'stalaktos' ('dripping') via ''stalassein'' ('to drip') is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble an ...

and

stalagmite A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling") is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...

formation known as the ''Jesus' family'' in the cave File:Lummelunda-grottan-Gotland-2010 02.jpg, Stalactite drapery and straws in the Visitors Cave File:Turisternas ingang till lummelundagrottan.jpg, The tourist's entrance to the cave File:Lummelundagrottans mynning.jpg, The entrance of the Linné's Cave

References

External links

{{Commons category, Lummelundagrottan, Lummelunda Cave
Pictures of Lummelunda CaveA tour through the Lummelunda Cave
Caves of Sweden Gotland Nature reserves in Sweden Geography of Gotland County Landforms of Gotland County Tourist attractions in Gotland County Limestone caves