1S96.] loi 



MITCHEI.STOWN CAVE. 



BY E. A. M ARTEL, 



President of the Society Spel^ologique, Paris. 



Pirate 2. 



The most celebrated and the largest cave in Ireland is in the 



county of Tipperary, in the south of the island ; it is that of 



Mitchelstown, and is situated twelve miles east of this town. 



It was discovered on the 2nd of May, 1833, by a stone- 

 breaker, named Cowden : it is referred to in various descrip- 

 tive works, and frequently visited by tourists; but it has 

 never t)een completely described, and the plan of it remained 

 unfinished.' It was supposed to contain a subterranean river, 

 and many unexplored passages. 



On the 24th of July, 1895, I spent six hours visiting all the 

 accessible corners, and drawing out the short topographical 

 survey here given, which will prevent the necessity of a long 

 analysis. My survey does not offer any new peculiarity, and 

 I will confine myself to a brief indication of the principal 

 features. Hollowed out under a hill which overlooks the 

 surrounding plains, this cave does not seem to be in connec- 

 tion with any actual river. 



The cave of Mitchelstown has been formed, like others, by 

 the drainage of superficial waters, at an epoch when they were 

 much more abundant than they are in our days. In the inte- 

 rior the galleries offer two different aspects ; some of them, 

 the largest, have served and serve still as swallow-holes for 

 the w^aters from without; they are — ist, the Entrance Gallery, 

 which is the highest, being 13 yards in altitude at the mouth ; 

 the orifice of this galler\' was discovered, by chance, in the 

 working of a quarry ; 2nd, the double avenue, with parallel 

 branches, of the Kingston Gallery and Sand Cave,= where the 

 effects of the erosion and corrosion have produced the most 

 curious sections (see the two transverse cuts of Sand Cave) ; 



*Apjohn : Journal Geological Soc. of Dublin^ vol. i., 1833, pages 103-111. 

 Rev. Canon Courtenay Moore : lournal of the Cork Historical and Arc/neoL 

 Soc, January, 1894. 



Dublin Penny Journal^ 27 Dec, 1S34. 



= Eighty yards long, and not forty-cue, as stated by Rev. Courtenay 

 Moore. "-' ' *' 



