Dunmore Caves

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Dunmore Cave is a cave in Ballyfoyle, County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is a limestone cave, and the site of a Viking massacre in 928.^[1]

The caves are located to the east of and close to the N78 Kilkenny-Castlecomer road and about 11 km north of Kilkenny City. The entrance is from high ground and descent underground allows depth before the water table is reached. A tourist centre has been established at the site. Overlooking the Dinin River Valley, it is found in an isolated outcrop of limestone on the Castlecomer Plateau. Dunmore is not one of the largest of Ireland's caves. It contains just a quarter mile of passages and at its deepest point, it descends to 150 ft but it possesses some of the finest calcite formations of any cave in the country. The most spectacular is the Market Cross a stalagmite over 19 ft high. The distinctly cross shape was formed by limestone deposits dripping from the ceiling. In the Annals of the Four Masters the cave was recorded as Dearc Fearna "The Cave of Alders" and was one of the three darkest places in Ireland.

Tradition has it that a company of English soldiers followed some local rebels into the caves, but never returned. Some time later, the sound of their fifes and drums were heard coming from underneath Kilkenny Castle, about three miles away. In 1999, a hoard of 43 silver and bronze items were discovered in a rocky cleft deep in the cave. The hoard was dated to 970 AD. It consisted of silver, ingots and conical buttons woven from fine silver.

[edit] References

^ Annals of the Four Masters M928.4 Godfrey, grandson of Imhar, with the foreigners of Ath-cliath, demolished and plundered Dearc Fearna, where one thousand persons were killed in this year [1]