Furthest place from a cave in the UK?

J

Jack Hare

New member
Random question - does anyone know where is the furthest place from a cave in the UK? A cave in this case being naturally formed in limestone, not coastal, but I'm happy for inventive answers which break these constraints! My guess is somewhere near Ramsgate - can you suggest somewhere further?
 
JoshW

JoshW

Well-known member
In terms of breaking rules, looking through our foreign territories and finding a little island somewhere might be the answer.

Uk mainland I doubt south east of kent can be far off it, although technically as the crow flies might not be far from caves in northern france/Belgium.

Live in West Sussex and caves feel a million miles away right now
 
M

mikem

Well-known member
It's okay it's not limestone! However Shetland is peppered with sea caves, including long through trips.

Skaw is 294 travel miles from Smoo Cave.

Several of the overseas territories are volcanic (but not part of UK)
 
ZombieCake

ZombieCake

Well-known member
At the moment everywhere from my front door on the Sussex seaside might as well be on the moon.
In terms of remoteness are there caves on the Isle of Man?
 
F

Fjell

Well-known member
ZombieCake said:
At the moment everywhere from my front door on the Sussex seaside might as well be on the moon.
In terms of remoteness are there caves on the Isle of Man?
Click to expand...

I can see the IoM from Leck Fell.

For outer bleakness, Lowestoft is the spot. One more to add my list of reasons never to go back. Some decades ago an innocent American woman I knew had been led to live there for a while. She asked me in all innocence if it was normal for all the women to have tattoos, was that an English custom or something?  Normal for Norfolk I replied.
 
tony from suffolk

tony from suffolk

Well-known member
I'm sure there are many caverns "Measureless to Man" concealed here in the Suffolk countryside which have yet to be discovered. Until then, nix...
 
M

mikem

Well-known member
Rockall isn't actually that much further from Skye than Skaw is from Smoo (& somewhat harder to get to, & especially land on). Lowestoft is only half that distance from Matlock.

IoM does have limestone:
https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=20915.0

Suffolk has plenty of chalk:
https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=2144.0
 
Speleotron

Speleotron

Member
ZombieCake said:
In terms of remoteness are there caves on the Isle of Man?
Click to expand...

The Isle of Man isn't in the UK, it's a crown dependancy but it is a different country. The UK covers its defence and foreig relations but I think that's it.
 
M

mikem

Well-known member
Maybe the question should be, which of us lives furthest from limestone? (Even Antarctica has the Shackleton formation)
 
A

Andy Farrant

Active member
The furthest place in England and Wales from a known cave in limestone/chalk is probably Happisburgh on the north Norfolk coast (nearest known cave is I think Water End swallow holes in Hertfordshire which were dug open many years ago, but now infilled). The are natural caves in the Chalk near Dover and Chatham. That said, there are likely to be other as yet undiscovered small caves in the Chalk of East Anglia. I'm excluding sediment filled dissolution pipes and deneholes. The other contender is the Isles of Scilly, which is quite a way from the nearest limestone caves around Plymouth. In Scotland, then the Shetland Isles is the clear winner. On the mainland it is probably somewhere between Fraserburgh & Peterhead.
 
J

Jenny P

Active member
JoshW said:
In terms of breaking rules, looking through our foreign territories and finding a little island somewhere might be the answer.

Uk mainland I doubt south east of kent can be far off it, although technically as the crow flies might not be far from caves in northern france/Belgium.

Live in West Sussex and caves feel a million miles away right now
Click to expand...

I'm pretty certain that there are no caves in the Falkland Islands - that's if you want to count British Overseas Territories.  (There may possibly be some sea caves there but I think that's about it.)  Can't recall that I've ever seen a geological map of the Islands but I don't think there's any limestone - however, I stand to be corrected.

St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha are both volcanic in origin so there may be lava tubes.
 
J

Jenny P

Active member
mikem said:
There are caves in Patagonia (which is about 300 miles away)
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But the geology is quite different in Patagonia and the area containing caves is part of the Andean Chain which follows the western side of the continent of South America; in Patagonia it appears very similar to the rock towers in northern Italy which make up the climbing/skiing region, which is sedimentary rock.  The Falkland Islands are part of the eastern continental shelf of the southern part of South America.

I wonder, does somewhere like BGS have a geological map of the Falklands?
 
tony from suffolk

tony from suffolk

Well-known member
Andy Farrant said:
The furthest place in England and Wales from a known cave in limestone/chalk is probably Happisburgh on the north Norfolk coast...
Click to expand...
A special, five-gold star mark for the first person to post how Happisburgh is pronounced phonetically.
 
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