Transition Year students accompanied by Ms.McGrane visited the
Marble Arch Caves - Sept 2010

History - Marble Arch Caves

• Locals have always known about the caves. They named the caves the Marble Arch Caves because they thought that the red colour was marble but really it was from the peat on the surface.
• In the 1800's the 1st explorers went in with only candles on their helmets to illuminate the caves and flares which only light the caves for about as much time as a disposable camera flash.

Man -Made

• Martel and Jameson were the 1st in. They only made it as far as the pool chamber where there they drilled a tunnel (which took 6 months). Today there are still drill marks left on the wall.
• There is a bit of the Owen Breen river that goes higher and the cave ceiling lower so a wall was constructed to prevent the visitors from going through the river and getting wet.

Geography of the Caves

• The Marble Arch Caves are 94m in depth and 9 km in length!
• Three tributaries flow through the cave and all join up. The water level of the rivers has risen due to the cutting of turf from further upstream. Some parts of the features are red because of the turf.

Uses for these Caves

• Apart from being used to hide treasure as shown in Stephen Spielberg's movie 'The Goonies', the Global Geopark organization has developed these caves into a tourist and information area where a tour of the caves are given and each cave feature is pointed out and explained. These caves attract an increasing number of people per year the total number of people as of last year being 651,022 which is a phenomenal amount of people visiting, whether they are tourists or students they are all being educated on the caves.