Kirkdale Cave
The start of the Victorian discovery
of modern scientific method
You will find a chronology, together with source material on
the Kirkdale page.
Directions
About a mile
west of Kirkbymoorside, south of the North York Moors, you will find a portal
to a distant era of geological time in the heart of the family’s ancestral
land. Head towards Helmsley on the A170 and at the Welburn junction head north
on Kirkdale Lane. Turn right at the crossroads and you can park in a large
carpark beside the minster.
Before you
visit the church, walk back down the land to the T junction and turn left. You
will come to a ford across the Hodge Beck, but there is also a bridge to keep
your feet dry. Shortly after the crossing, follow one of the paths into the
woods and you will find a clearing only twenty metres into the wood. Look
across the clearing and you will see a rockface and about fifteen metres up
from the ground there is the entrance to a cave.
The Cave
Please
do not attempt to climb to the cave itself unless you have the appropriate
experience and equipment.
Kirkdale
Cave is a cave and fossil site located in Kirkdale. It was discovered by
workmen in 1821 and found to contain the fossilised bones of a variety of
mammals no longer indigenous to Britain, including hippopotami (the farthest
north any such remains have been found), elephants and cave hyenas. The
tropical; animal remains date to the interglacial period, about 130,000 years
ago. This was later than the period of significant continental drift, so this
was a place at the same latitude as it is today, but the earth was sufficiently
warmer that it was a place where animals now found in tropical lands once
roamed.
Please read
the story of the Kirkdale Cave.
Please then
visit the page Exploring the Cave.