Charterhouse Cave facts for kids

Charterhouse Cave is a famous cave located in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It is known as the deepest cave in southern England.

Exploring Charterhouse Cave

A Look at Its History

People first started exploring Charterhouse Cave in 1972. By 1977, a group called the Sidcot School Speleological Society reached a spot called Bat Chamber. A big discovery, or "breakthrough," into the main cave system happened in 1982.

Explorers are still finding new parts of the cave today! In April 2008, they found a new passage about 300 metres (980 ft) long that was big enough to walk through. Another exciting discovery happened in May 2009. They managed to get past a water-filled tunnel, called a sump, at Portal Pool. This opened up another 500 m (1,600 ft) of new passages! More exploration in 2010 and 2011 helped map the cave to its current known length and depth.

How to Visit the Cave

The land where Charterhouse Cave is located belongs to the Somerset Wildlife Trust. The entrance to the cave is kept locked. This is to protect the amazing and delicate rock formations inside.

Because of these special formations, only experienced cavers with special permits can enter. These permits are given by clubs that are part of the Charterhouse Caving Company. To keep the cave safe and protected, people under 16 years old or those new to caving are not allowed to go inside.

What's Inside the Cave

Main Chambers and Passages

Charterhouse Cave has three very large rooms, or "chambers." These are called Midsummer Chamber, The Citadel, and Times Square. The Citadel is almost as big as the famous chambers in GB Cave and Lamb Leer.

The cave also has many long, straight tunnels. These passages are usually about 2 m (6.6 ft) wide and the same height.

Delicate Formations

Many parts of the cave are home to beautiful and fragile rock formations. These include areas like Forbidden Passage, Midsummer Chamber, The Citadel, The Grotto of the Singing Stal, and the First and Second Inlets. These formations are why the cave is so carefully protected.

New Discoveries and Water Flow

When explorers passed the Portal Pool Sump in May 2009, they found about 500 m (1,600 ft) of new passages. They also found several smaller side tunnels. After this discovery, surveys showed about 1,000 m (3,300 ft) of mapped passages. There's still an estimated 500 m (1,600 ft) that hasn't been fully surveyed, plus other areas still waiting to be explored! These surveys also confirmed that the cave is over 200 m (660 ft) deep.

Interestingly, the stream from a nearby cave called GB Cave flows into Charterhouse Cave. This water eventually comes out near Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, which is about 2 km (1.2 mi) away!

Cave Animals

Bats and Insects

There's a special hole in the concrete building over the cave entrance. This hole allows bats to fly in and out of the cave freely.

The insects and other small creatures found in Charterhouse Cave are typical for caves in the Mendip Hills. These include animals that live their whole lives in caves, called troglobites, and those that can live in caves but also outside, called troglophiles. Examples include the freshwater shrimp (niphargus fontanus) and the springtail (onychiurus schoetti).