Strange stuff has gone on in these caves..
ALTAR CANDLES FAMOUS CAVERNS
control. You can put up razor-wire but if someone gets injured, we’re the ones who would land in trouble.
“People don’t seem to realise that this is private property and they are trespassing. It’s a difficult one.”
Whether it’s boozy kids, druids, white witches, wizards or Satanists, entering the Caynton Caves is risky. Dogs, including a very large mastiff, roam the grounds. Then there’s the barbed wire and brambles.
The caves themselves are hazardous, too. Some chambers are so tiny you have to enter on hands and knees.
Plans to fill in the extensive network have been rejected.
Yet still intruders came, ignoring the perils to discover a site dubbed one of the most mystical in the Midlands.
Not surprisingly, Solstice and Halloween pose particular problems.
One Halloween bonfire party for local children was interrupted when trespassing worshippers, alerted by smoke, spilled from the cave.
Sketch said: “We really went to town that night – putting up a cross and building a bonfire.
“All of a sudden all these people came running out, coughing and spluttering.”
They, like so many others, were inspired by the many legends that surround Caynton Caves.
Sketch said: “Very little is known about why they are there. There are all kinds of stories. We were told they were dug by followers of the Knights Templar.
“They wanted a place to worship without being persecuted.
“We’ve also been told a landowner hid slaves in there, as slavery was illegal by then.”
Some believe the grotto is much more recent, dug out in the 1850s by a wealthy family.
One website, devoted to Britain’s hidden treasures, reads: “It consists of a series of passages and chambers, with niches for candles, and the carving of the rooms is quite professional.
“It’s a creepy place and is rumoured to have been used in the 80s for black magic rituals.” Kirkpatrick Fleming: In 1306, King Robert the Bruce of Scotland, defeated by King Edward I, hid in this cave in Dumfries and Galloway. There he saw a spider doggedly trying to spin a web, convincing him never to give up.
He went on beat the English in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Qumran Caves: The Dead Sea Scrolls were found here in the West Bank in 1946. Manuscripts date from 100 to 200 years before Christ’s birth. Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem: Claimed as England’s oldest pub, it was built into caves under Nottingham Castle in 1189. So named as the Crusaders stopped off for a few pints here before heading to the Holy Land.