Caves in and near Sligo

The Marble Arch Caves near Sligo offer a unique way to explore its labyrinthine passages: a boat trip takes visitors through the cave on its underground river. Tours of this magnificent Sligo show cave lead you through massive underground caverns and past beautiful waterfalls. The Kesh Caves, also near Sligo, are associated with ancient myths and are of great archaeological interest.

Marble Arch Caves

The Marble Arch Caves are one of Europe's finest showcaves allowing visitors to explore a fascinating underworld of rivers, waterfalls, winding passages and lofty chambers. ... more

Over millions of years, rivers and rains have carved an amazing labyrinth of caves into Ireland's beautiful mountains. There is approximately 330 millions years of geological history to uncover in these underground caverns, as well as thousands of years of human history. Many of these caves are important archaeological and historical sites.

There is something on offer for anyone from the interested tourist to the expert cave explorer, so bring along your sense of adventure and delve into the fascinating world of Irish caves.

The Burren area in County Clare is one of the most geologically rich regions in Western Europe, and has many cave systems carved into its ancient limestone by underground rivers. Most of the fascinating Burren caves can only be explored by experienced potholers, but a few wonderful show caves are open to visitors.

The Aillwee Cave near Ballyvaughan is one of the most ancient cave systems in the Burren. It was formed by the melted waters of a prehistoric ice age, and has many incredible rock formations, including magnificent stalactites (limestone formations suspended from the cave's ceiling). A unique aspect of the cave is its bear pits – hollows that were scraped out by brown bears for hibernation purposes. The bones of a brown bear, a species which has been extinct in Ireland for over 1000 years, were also found in the magnificent cave.

One of the world's largest free hanging stalactites can be seen in the Doolin Cave, also in the Burren area near Lahinch. To lessen the environmental effect of visitors on the cave interior, lighting has been kept to minimum and visitors are issued helmets and flashlights for a real potholing experience, as they explore the cave's rivers and passages. The Great Stalactite is definitely the highlight of the cave, a spectacular limestone formation measuring over six metres, which makes it the longest stalactite in the northern hemisphere.

The Aillwee and Doolin Caves are 'fossil' caves, meaning that the rivers and streams that shaped them no longer rush through the caves, so they are not evolving and are relatively safe to explore. Keen potholers can also traverse the fascinating and extensive network of 'active' caves in the Burren, where rainwater streaming down from the acidic shale hills burns holes in the limestone and causes streams of water to flow underground, continually sculpting the cave systems. Many of the vast labyrinths of caves formed in this way are still unmapped, and present a real challenge and adventure for expert cavers.

The Marble Arch Caves near Sligo offer visitors a unique way to explore its maze-like passages – a boat trip takes visitors through the cave on its underground river. Tours will lead you through massive subterranean chambers and past beautiful underground waterfalls in this impressive show cave, which formed under Cuilcagh Mountain.

The underground caverns were sculpted by three rivers flowing off the sandstone slopes of the mountain, descending through large cracks in the limestone. The limestone itself is amazingly more than 330 million years old, and was formed from the floor of a warm tropical ocean that covered the area millennia ago. The cave's formations are spectacular, and include glistening stalactites hanging above the streams and chambers, and sparkling calcite covering the cave walls. Unusual formations have been given equally unique names such as 'the Porridge Pot', 'Grand Canyon' and 'Moses Walk' in an attempt to describe the exceptional shapes.

When you're visiting Ireland's show caves, your imagination will be captured by the stories of how the caves were originally discovered, and the various exploration attempts which have allowed modern visitors to appreciate the caves' beauty and grandeur. The Marble Arch Caves were first explored in 1895 by a French speleologist (cave expert), Eduoard Martel and a naturalist, Lister Jameson. The pair were equipped with only a small canvas paddle boat and candles and magnesium flares for lighting, so as you're travelling down the underground river on the comfortable motor boat with electric lighting, try to imagine how exciting and frightening that first trip into the unknown underworld must have been.

Also in the north-west Ireland, near Sligo, are a group of seventeen small caves, the Kesh Caves. The limestone caves are associated with many ancient myths and legends, and are of archaeological interest, because the remains of animals now extinct in Ireland were discovered in these underground hollows: animal fossils include those of the cave bear, Arctic lemming, reindeer and Irish elk. Prehistoric man also used the caves, and they were the site of traditional ritual gatherings during Celtic festivals like Lughnasa until the last century. Keshcorran, the mountain into which the caves are carved, provides wonderful views of the picturesque countryside below.

Ireland may be one of the most beautiful countries in the world above ground, but you also won't be disappointed by its spectacular underground wonderlands.