Welcome to Victoria Cave, a nationally famous cave in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park.
The Yorkshire Dales is an area with a geology of primarily limestone. This limestone is Carboniferous limestone. This means it was formed in a tropical sea which covered the UK 359 million years ago. This would have occured in the Dinantian sub period of the Carboniferous era. Carboniferous limestone is a sedimentary rock made of calcium carbonate. It is generally light-grey in colour, and is hard. It was formed in warm, shallow tropical seas teeming with life. The rock is made up of the shells and hard parts of millions of sea creatures, some up to 30 cm in length, encased in carbonate mud. Fossil corals, brachiopods and crinoids are very much in evidence as components of Carboniferous limestone; indeed the rock is full of fossils.
Carboniferous limestone has horizontal layers (beds) with bedding planes, and vertical joints. These joints are weaknesses in the rock, which are exploited by agents of both denudation and weathering. They also lead to the most important characteristic of Carboniferous limestone - its permeability. Water seeps through the joints in the limestone. This creates a landscape that lacks surface drainage but which has all manner of characteristic surface and subsurface features. The Carboniferous Limestone has been folded and faulted by massive Earth movements which can be seen by the fact that the rocks are now above sea-level and no longer horizontal. There are other types of limestone which include Sugar, but they are formed in different conditions to Carboniferous limestone.
"Victoria Cave was discovered by chance in 1837 and since then has been completely excavated. Within the cave’s thick clay deposits, scientists found an amazing record of climate change in the Dales over thousands of years.
Victorian excavators were particularly fascinated by ‘bone caves’ where there might be a possibility of finding evidence for the earliest humans along with long extinct animals. Victoria Cave certainly had plenty of animal bones. The earliest, at 130,000 years old, included those of hippos, narrow-nosed rhino, elephants and spotted hyenas. They date to an Upper Pleistocene interglacial when the climate was much warmer than today. It seems as if at that time, the hyenas were using the cave as a den and dragging scavenged bones back to it. No evidence was found for human activity during this period.
The glaciers then returned and from 120,000 to around 12,000 years ago the cave gradually filled with layer upon layer of clay deposited as the glaciers periodically melted.
After the last Ice Age the cave was used by hibernating brown bear. In amongst the animal bones of reindeer was an 11,000 year old antler harpoon point, the first evidence for people in the Yorkshire Dales.
For archaeologists, the Roman layers were even more interesting. Here a collection of unusual bronze and bone artefacts were found, including brooches and coins. The unusual nature of some of the finds has led archaeologists to believe that the cave was being used as more than just a storage place or shelter for craft workers. It may even have been some sort of shrine.
Source:
Dearne, Martin J & Lord, Thomas C (1998) The Romano-British Archaeology of Victoria Cave, Settle. Oxford: BAR British Series 273
In order to log a find against this earthcache you will need to answer some questions when you visit the coordinates given. You shouldn't answer these questions in your log, you will need to send them to me via my geocaching profile. You do not need to wait for a reply from me to log the cache.
1) Victoria Cave is a natural cave that has been widened by prehistoric humans. Briefly describe to me how the cave was formed initially and how prehistoric humans were able to widen the cave with their primitive tools such as chisels. You'll need to refer to the limestone in your answer.
2) Do you think the cave will look as it does forever or do you think time will take its toll and the whole cave will collapse one day?
Pictures aren't compulsory but are appreciated.
My thanks must go to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority for the permission for this earthcache which is in an SSSI and a Nature Reserve. Due to this I must ask finders to respect their surroundings.