IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Dart Bridge Road, BUCKFASTLEIGH, TQ11 0DY

It is likely that there was once a large cave chamber, or a maze of cave passages, which were quarried away when Higher Kiln Quarry was active. These fragments of cave passage could well be all that remains of the east end of a chamber which had what is now Joint Mitnor Cave at the west end.

These lime kilns, here seen from below, used limestone from the adjacent quarries to produce lime for agricultural and building uses in the local area. Only one of the openings through which the kilns were loaded can now be seen above, by the buildings that are now the William Pengelly Cave Studies Centre.

50 years ago this was just a disused farm barn, but now serves as the accommodation centre for scientists working at the Cave Research Centre. A low wing has been built to provide changing rooms and other facilities

Since I first visited the site over 50 years ago a level path has been built along the cliff face and steps have been added up the steep slope from the quarry bottom. Because of the small size of the cave this is the biggest party that can be accommodated - and visits are only allowed when no bats are present.

I was involved in digging the foundations of the wall in 1960/61, which was built in order to safeguard the bone deposits and allow them to be used as an educational geological site. The greenish vertical area in the bottom left of the picture is a section, now covered with algae, etc, of the sterile mud deposits that underlie the talus cone. Similar red-brown mud deposits occur in all the Buckfastleigh caves, the high level of clay originating from the granite of nearby Dartmoor.

This photograph was taken during building work over the winter of 1960/61. The aim was to make the cave secure, so that it could be prepared as an educational site.