Martin's Cave is a cave in the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. It opens on the eastern cliffs of the

Rock of Gibraltar The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq , meaning "Mountain of Tariq ibn Ziyad, Tariq") is a monolithic limestone mountain high dominating the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It is situated near the end of a nar ...

, below its summit at O'Hara's Battery. It is an ancient

sea cave A sea cave, is also known as a littoral cave, a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion. Sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as re ...

, though it is now located over above the shore of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

. It is only accessible because Martin's Path was constructed.

Geography

Gibraltar is sometimes referred to as the "Hill of Caves" and the geological formation of all the caves is limestone. Formed before the arrival of humans, its creation, and that of other caves in its vicinity, is attributed to the cracks and fissures within formations of the rock along which erosion occurred. Its extreme length from the entrance is , while its greatest breadth is . There is only one outlet from within the cave.

History

The cave was said to have been discovered in 1821 by a soldier named Martin, after whom it was named. According to an 1829 account, the soldier had been "wandering about the summit of the Rock somewhat inebriated" and was absent from that evening's muster. He was feared to have fallen over the precipice and to have been dashed to pieces on the rocks below. Three days after disappearing, however, he reappeared with torn and dirty clothes and a haggard appearance. He had indeed fallen but had landed on a narrow ledge in front of the entrance to the cave, before being rescued. At the time, reaching the cave was very difficult. The

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

built Martin's Path, a small approach path above the precipice to facilitate access. A visitor described the perilous journey to get there a few years after it was discovered: In the 1860s, Captain Frederick Brome, the governor of Gibraltar's military prison, sought permission from the

Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territories, British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of ...

to explore Martin's Cave, as well as St. Michael's Cave,

Fig Tree Cave Fig Tree Cave is a cave in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located on the eastern cliffs of the Rock of Gibraltar, not far from Martin's Cave within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. It is listed in the Heritage and Antiquiti ...

and Poca Roca Cave, with the objective of finding archaeological evidence of the past use of the caves. The Governor readily agreed to the proposal. A ten-member team of prisoners began the explorations, with Martin's Cave being the first to be explored. Excavations commenced on 23 June 1868, and continued until 22 July. There were no discernible traces of any previous attempts at detailed exploration, and no inscription earlier than 1822 could be discovered in the cave. Parts of a human

lower jaw In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

, and two

bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an Imperial unit, imperial and United States customary units, US customary unit of volume, based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel was used mostly for agriculture, agricultural pr ...

s of bones belonging to ox,

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

, and

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

were found; there were also several bird and fish bones. Other finds included two bushels of broken

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

, of which 57 pieces were ornamented; 61 handles and pots; 6

stone axe Stone tools have been used throughout human history but are most closely associated with prehistoric cultures and in particular those of the Stone Age. Stone tools may be made of either ground stone or knapped stone, the latter fashioned by a c ...

s and 70

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

knives; a portion of an

armlet A brassard or armlet is an armband or piece of cloth or other material worn around the upper arm; the term typically refers to an item of uniform worn as part of military uniform or by police or other uniformed persons. Unit, role, rank b ...

and

anklet An anklet, also called ''ankle chain'', ''ankle bracelet'' or ''ankle string'', is an ornament worn around the ankle. Barefoot anklets and toe rings historically have been worn for at least over 8,000 years by girls and women in Indus Valley, ...

; and 10 pounds of sea shells. A small, brightly coloured, enamelled

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

plate was also found, which appears to have had a design upon it of a bird with an open bill in the coils of a serpent. Similar works of art, consisting of fragments of pottery, flint and stone implements were unearthed. The two swords both just over a metre long dating to the 12th or 13th century were also unearthed. The

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

has seven items in its collection donated by Captain Brome. Six of these are the two swords, a scabbard, two buckles and a plaque which were all originally found in Martin's Cave. During World War II Gibraltar's caves were extended and exploited by the military, and Martin's Cave was used to house electric generators. The generators were removed but the holes that were drilled in the roof of the cave still have cables as evidence of the caves industrial use. A nearby battery also became known as Martin's Battery. The cave is briefly lit by natural light just after sunrise. Due to past vandalism, the entrance to the cave is kept behind a padlocked gate which is a branch off the nature trail called Mediterranean Steps.

Bats

The cave has been home to large groups of bats in the past. In November 1966, the cave was surveyed by the Gibraltar Cave Research Group; a painted sign on the cave's wall mentions this. An estimated 5000 Schreibers' bats ''

Miniopterus schreibersii ''Miniopterus'', known as the bent-winged or long winged bats, is the sole genus of the family Miniopteridae. They are small flying insectivorous mammals, micro-bats of the order Chiroptera, with wings over twice the length of the body. The genus ...

'' and 1000 large mouse-eared bats '' Myotis myotis'' were there in the '60s. There were no bats found in a 2002 survey of the cave, with incidents of fireworks usage within the cave reported as contributing to the matter.

Protection

This cave was included in the caves listed in the Heritage and Antiquities Act 2018 by the Government of Gibraltar, noting that its archaeology was Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Medieval.

References

: {{Caves of Gibraltar Caves of Gibraltar