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 Dunmore Caves Dunmore Cave is located on the Castlecomer plateau, overlooking the Dinin River Valley. In this area a small and isolated limestone outcrop exists. Therefore Dunmore Cave is the only cave of significance known in southeast Ireland. The entrance is 12 m wide and 6 m high. It lies at the bottom of a 20 m deep pit, a so called Doline, were the roof of the cave collapsed many years ago. Most of the cave is horizontal and has two different levels. The largest dripstone pillar of the cave, the so called Market Cross, is over 5m high and 1.3 m across. There is little to suggest that here, according to legend, Luchtigen - the monster Lord of the Mice - was slaughtered. The calcite deposits in this chamber, called the Town Hall, are very pure as indicated by their whiteness. Many chambers in the cave are the product of roof collapse along lines of weakness in the rock.
January 2000 saw the cave at Dunmore, under the world spotlight as 43 silver and bronze items which had been discovered late in 1999 was displayed to the public at the National Museum of Ireland for the first time. The find was dated by several coins minted around 970 AD. It consisted of hack silver and ingots as well as conical buttons made of fine silver wire woven expertly to form their present shape. The richness of the find which had been concealed in a rocky cleft deep in the cave and the fact that it was never returned to, hints that a personal tragedy overcame its owner.
The cave was known in the Irish Annals as 'Dearc Fearna'- the 'Cave of the Alders' and was one of the three darkest places in Ireland. In the Annals of the Four Masters it is recorded that 'Godfrey, son of Imhar with the foreigners of Dublin plundered Dearc Fearna and killed 1000 people in 928 AD. Bones have frequently been found by cavers giving credence to the tale of a massacre. A recent study of bones from the cave identified 44 individuals, 19 of which were adult, 25 children. The bulk of the adult bones were female.
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