Cave it’s a place without age, a hint of eternity. Drops of water echo in the distant passages, the air is pure, fresh, natural….the temperature is constant, an unreal world of sensual beauty. It is a world without sun, without time, a world where man almost feels an intruder, stumbling on a past age, an era where nature reigns supreme.

The Mitchelstown Cave, eight miles from Mitchelstown in the scenic Magh Feimhin Valley in the Galtee Mountains contains the most beautiful and ancient calcium carbonate formations in the whole of Ireland, and reputedly, Europe. They were first discovered in 1833 by a farm labourer, Michael Condon, who accidentally dropped a crowbar into a crevice when the cave was on the 100,000 acre estate of the English Earls of Kingston.

After the estate went bankrupt the Mulcahy family bought the land on which the cave is situated, and they and the English’s who married into the family, have acted as custodians of the cave's natural treasures which took hundreds of millions of years to form. The family are extremely knowledgeable about the cave which they are dedicated to preserving for future generations. They illuminated it with electric light in 1972, but other than carrying in materials to make safe paths through the caverns, they have maintained the cave as a natural and uncommercialised attraction.

There are road signs to the cave and you pay €4,5 entrance at the English's house. The way into the cave could easily be missed if not pointed out by the guides and this coupled with the fact that the cave has not been developed as a glitzy tourist attraction gives you the feeling of discovering its huge caverns for the first time. The wonderful stalactites, stalagmites, calcite curtains, columns and calcite flows make the interior of the cave look like Solomon's Mine. Some of the formations are sparkling white calcite and some are streaked with brown, blue, black and grey minerals. Many reach massive proportions and have been aptly named the Acropolis, the organ pipes, Lot's wife, The Pillars of Hercules, the eagle's wing, Solomon's Throne, Niamh's mantle, the Golden Fleece and the Tower of Babel. The caverns were made by underground rivers and lakes and you can still see scalloped watermarks and fossil shells on the cave walls. However, it now never fills with water unlike other Irish caves like the Marble Arch in Fermanagh which is prone to flooding.

The temperature inside the cave always stays the same winter or summer at 54 degrees Fahrenheit. The largest cavern is the Tir Na Nog, measuring 51 by 31 metres square by 20 metres high, which was used to host a banquet with 150 guests in 1972, Ireland's first underground radio programme in 1977.

The earliest record of animals from Mitchelstown Caves resulted from a visit there, in August 1857, by two eminent natural historians. Since then many naturalists and speleological societies have collected animals in the cave and more than twenty species have been recorded. Most of these were represented by individuals who had simply wandered into the cave and been trapped, and therefore, would not be considered as true cave dwellers. However, four of the common species are true residents and are found regularly by guides who can point them out to visitors. These include a spider, two species of primitive insects known as Spring Tails, and a Mite.

The cave is now open daily throughout the year and the temperature remains constantly at 54 Fahrenheit. Mitchelstown Caves are highly recommended for a visit.