Peak Cavern

Coordinates: 53°20′25″N 1°46′43″W / 53.340256°N 1.778499°W / 53.340256; -1.778499
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Peak Cavern
Peak Cavern entrance
LocationCastleton, Derbyshire
GeologyLimestone

The Peak Cavern, also known as the Devil's Arse,[1][2] is one of the four show caves in Castleton, Derbyshire, England. Peakshole Water flows through and out of the cave, which has the largest cave entrance in Britain.

Overview

A plan of the Peak Cavern from 1834

Unlike the other show caves in the area, Peak Cavern is almost entirely natural; the only artificial part of the cave was blasted to bypass a low tunnel that was only accessible by lying down on a boat. The cave system is the largest in the

Giles Hather, the King of the Gypsies.[3]

Several passages lead from the entrance, known as "The Vestibule". The only one open to the public is "

underground stream known as "Inner Styx" via a series of four wooden bridges, under "Five Arches" to the junction of Buxton Water Sump. This section often floods in winter, and occasionally summer, which required regular clearing of debris and mending of the safety fences at the start of the tourist season in April (cave tours were not an all-year event until 1997). In the mid-1980s, there was a worldwide scare over the possible dangers of radon, a gas found to be present in this lower part of the cave and a potential issue for tour guides frequently exposed to it. This, along with the maintenance required, led to the Five Arches part of the tour being closed to the public in 1989, the same year that the BBC filmed The Chronicles of Narnia at this location. It can, however, still be accessed by cavers, and a ventilation system here expels cave air to surface at Cave Dale.[4][5][6] There have since been efforts to return this area of cave to a more natural state by erasing the history of its show-cave past, removing the wooden bridges which had served generations of paying visitors.[7]

From Five Arches, several routes are open to cavers. The main path, to the right, leads beneath "Victoria

pitch
in Britain.

Name

Historically the cave was known as the Devil's Arse, under which name it is described in William Camden's Britannia of 1586:

...there is a cave or hole within the ground called, saving your reverence, The Devils Arse, that gapeth with a wide mouth and hath in it many turnings and retyring roomes, wherein, for sooth, Gervase of Tilbury, whether for want of knowing the truth, or upon a delight hee had in fabling, hath written that a Shepheard saw a verie wide and large Country with riverets and brookes running here and there through it, and huge pooles of dead and standing waters. Notwithstanding, by reason of these and such like fables, this Hole is reckoned for one of the wonders of England...[8]

The cavern was declared to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Peak by philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his 1636 book De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being The Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire, Commonly called The Devil's Arse of Peak.[9]

A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain
(1724–26):

...the so famed wonder call'd, saving our good manners, The Devil's A—e in the Peak'.[10]

and also mentions the shepherd story recorded by Gervase of Tilbury. The name of the cave was changed to "Peak Cavern" in 1880 in order not to cause offence to

flatulent-sounding noises from inside the cave when flood water is draining away.[citation needed
]

Events

The cavern has hosted concerts by

See also

  • Neil Moss – victim of a famous caving accident in Peak Cavern in 1959
  • The Devil's Point, Cairngorms, Scotland – also renamed to spare Queen Victoria embarrassment.

Notes

  1. ^ The cave-houses at Kinver Edge near Kidderminster were populated until the 1950s.

References

  1. ^ a b Hawley, Richard (5 August 2006). "Richard Hawley in Yorkshire and Derbyshire". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Welcome to Peak and Speedwell Caverns". Peak Caverns (official website). Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  3. ^ Rid, Samuel (1610). Martin Markall, the Beadle of Bridewell. as quoted in Reynolds, Bryan (1 April 2003). Becoming Criminal: Transversal Performance and Cultural Dissidence in Early Modern England (Google eBook). JHU Press. p. unnumbered.
  4. ^ "When did Five Arches get closed to the paying public?". PeakSpeedwell.Info. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Micro Guide: Peak Cavern, Castleton" (PDF). Peak District Caving. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  6. ^ "Filming locations for The Silver Chair". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  7. ^ Sheldon, Wayne (2000). "Conservation Work Undertaken in Peak". Technical Speleological Group. Retrieved 21 March 2020.
  8. ^ Camden, William (1610) [1586]. Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Translated by Holland, Philemon. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  9. ^ "De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being the Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire". www.wondersofthepeak.org.uk. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  10. ^ Defoe, Daniel (1724–26). "Letter 8, Part 2: The Peak District". A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  11. ^ Kay, Peter (30 May 2013). "String of concerts will help raise famous natural venue to new peak". Sheffield Telegraph. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  12. ^ "'Once in a lifetime chance' to see films". Sheffield Star. 30 May 2013. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  13. ^ Martin Scorsese premiere for Sheffield Doc/Fest, BBC News, 8 May 2014, retrieved 4 August 2014
  14. ^ Pidd, Helen (8 June 2014). "Pulp to Scorsese: down-to-earth Sheffield Doc/Fest reaches for the stars". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 March 2020.

External links

53°20′25″N 1°46′43″W / 53.340256°N 1.778499°W / 53.340256; -1.778499