Marble Arch Caves

Useful Information

Location:	43 Marlbank Road, Florencecourt, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, BT92 1EW. 19 km from Enniskillen, follow A4 (Sligo Road) for 5 km, then A32 (Swalinbar Road). Well signposted. (54.25851, -7.81318)
Open:	All year daily 10-17. Closed 01-JAN, 23-DEC to 27-DEC, 31-DEC. [2024]
Fee:	Adult GBP 15.50, Children (5-17) GBP 7.80, Children (0-4) free, Students GBP 14, Seniors (65+) GBP 14, Family (2+3) GBP 47. Group (10+): Private Tour GBP 294. Cave Explorer Virtual Reality Experience: Adults GBP 3, Children (5-17) GBP 3. [2024]
Classification:	Karst cave river cave, Carboniferous limestones.
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	L=11 km, Area=2,200m², T=10 °C.
Guided tours:	Owenbrean River Walking Tour: L=1,500 m, D=75 min, St=154, Max=21. Cave Explorer Virtual Reality Experience: D= 10 min, MinAge=5.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:	E. A. Martel (1897): British Caves and Speleology, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 10, No. 5 (Nov., 1897), pp. 500-511. jstor pdf
Address:	Marble Arch Caves, 43 Marlbank Road, Florencecourt, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, BT92 1EW, Tel: +44-28-6632-1815. mac@fermanaghomagh.com
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

16-JUL-1895	explored by E. A. Martel, the famous French caving pioneer.
29-MAY-1985	opened to the public by Fermanagh District Council.
1989	a period of increasing flooding.
1998	Cuilcagh Mountain Park set up by the Fermanagh District Council to protect unaffected areas of the blanket bog and increase awareness of this rare habitat.
2001	Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark created.
2008	Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark becomes a UNESCO Global Geopark.

Description

Marble Arch Caves is a Speleology river cave. The visit includes a boat ride on the subterranean Claddagh River, if the water levels permit boat rides.

Visitors should book their tour online and arrive half an hour earlier. The visitor center near the cave entrance introduces the visitors into the forming of caves and the history of Marble Arch Caves. Beneath several displays, a 20-minute video is shown. From here the visitor walk down Cladagh Glen to the cave entrance. The default guided cave tour is the Owenbrean River-Walking Cave Tour, which does not include a boat ride. When the underground water levels allow the boat ride, ticket is automatically complementary upgraded to the Martel Tour. The so-called wet entrance, is the place were the underground river leaves the mountain. The visitors are boarding an electrically powered boat and float up Cladagh river to Junction Jetty, where three smaller rivers join to make a river big enough for the boat. Here the boat ride ends, and the rest of the cave is toured on foot. A decade ago they explained this the other way round, the tour included the boat ride, but when it was not possible, it was skipped. It seems the new way to see it is less hard to explain, nobody likes when a paid feature is skipped, but everybody likes a free upgrade. Though it's just words, the facts are the same.

As far as we understand, online tickets were mandatory due to COVID-19 restrictions, and are not any more. Nevertheless, they are strongly recommended though. Especially during the summer holiday season, the tours might be booked out and this is a good way to avoid nasty surprises.

During the year, there are additional offers or events. This includes Earth Yoga, an hour of yoga underground, and Martel’s Candlelight Tour which is offered in the evening. There are Dino Digs for children and experimental archaeology courses.

The Grand Gallery was first explored by E.A. Martel in 1895 by boat, hence the name Martel Tour. The narrow part of the passage, which compelled Martel to stop, is today passed through an artificial tunnel. The visitor then enter the New Chamber (guess why it is called so...). The rest of the passage, after this short dry interlude, follows again a river upstream. It's the Owenbrean river, one of the three tributaries of Cladagh river. The cave is left through an exit on the side of this passage.

The history of the cave is strongly connected to the first speleologist of the world, the French caving pioneer E. A. Martel. Although many caves were visited by man since prehistoric times, even used as hideouts during the Middle Ages, after the Middle Ages people avoided caves out of superstition and fear. And so E. A. Martel and the local Mr. Jameson were actually the first who explored this cave in 1895. So it is easy to understand why he is featured in the exhibition, and even the tour is named after him. He describes how the three rivers, Sruh Croppa, Aghinrawn, and the Monastir or Owenbrean, drain the northern turfy slopes of the Cuilcagh (666 m asl). They disappear suddenly into three swallow holes or river sinks, Cat's hole, Pollawaddy, and Pollasumera. He entered from the lower end, following the Cladagh upstream through a limestone gorge and entering the cave by boat. He describes three levels of cave, vadose, epiphreatic and phreatic, numerous shafts to the surface, which are a result of the rather thin cover of rocks. But as we already mentioned, he was not able to cross the cave to the swallow holes, as he was blocked by a sump. He published an article in The Geographical Journal which is one of the few publications he wrote in English.

The cave has a very good infrastructure, which includes a Visitor Center with exhibition, visitor information, the Marble Arch Caves Café, and the souvenir shop. The exhibition in the middle and at the sides of the visitor centre shows the formation, history and geology of the Marble Arch Caves. Additionally, there is what they call Cave Explorer Virtual Reality Experience This part is, unlike the cave, wheelchair accessible. There is also free Wi-Fi and a picnic area.

The water in this karst area is regulated very much by the vegetation, as common in all covered karst areas. The Cuilcagh Mountain above the cave was originally covered by boggy land with blanket bogs and thick layers of peat. But peat cutting, sheep over-grazing, uncontrolled burning of vegetation and use of quad motorbikes destroyed huge areas of this natural water reservoir. And then the mechanized commercial peat cutting increased. A single machine cut as much peat in a day as had previously been cut by a worker in a year. This destroyed not only the peat land habitat, but also caused the loss of its water-storing and peak-equalising properties.

The Cuilcagh Mountain Park was set up by the Fermanagh District Council in 1998. Peat cutting was stopped and more than 1200 small dams were put into the drains to build up the water levels in the bog. A weir upstream of the Marble Arch caves holds water back. And the museum at the cave entrance was built to tell the visitors the background of this park. The geology of Fermanagh and parts of Cavan is dominated by limestone karst in Carboniferous sedimentary limestones some 350 Ma old. The karst supports the formation of caves by carbon dioxide rich water, dissolving limestone along cracks. This causes underground drainage and riverless landscape, including dry valleys on the surface. This area is covered by the Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark which was created in 2001 and became a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2008. It offers 50 geotopes which are well developed and many are karst related. One of them is White Fathers Cave but visitors view the cave entrance from the safety of the path and do not enter the cave. Another is Pollnagollum Cave, which is quite spectacular with a waterfall at the entrance.