Pol An Ionain - History

History

The cave was discovered in 1952 by J. M. Dickenson and Brian Varley of Craven Pothole Club, an English caving club based in the Yorkshire Dales. The cave quickly became a classic caving trip for visiting cavers. Entry was arduous, requiring a long, difficult crawl.

In 1990, the land on which the cave is located was purchased by John and Helen Browne. The couple immediately embarked on an effort to develop the cave as a show cave. This provoked a reaction from the Speleological Union of Ireland who feared the 30-metre (98 ft) shaft that would have to be blasted to access the cave would damage the stalactite. They also objected to the fact that the caving trip would be lost to cavers and that the cave was a short artificial trip with only one feature. After an extended period of court proceedings, financing and development, the cave was opened to the public as a show cave in 2006, subject to the conditions of not having a visitor centre on site and restricting visitor numbers. No blasting was allowed to construct the entrance shaft. The developers instead used as system whereby a hole was drilled and an air expander placed in the hole to break the rock. Visitors to the cave must be taken from Doolin village by bus to the site where there are no surface installations.

In 2009 the cave owners made a planning application (their fifth in almost twenty years) to build a visitor center on site citing the limitations of having to transport people to the site by bus. Some 12,000 people visit the cave every year, well below the number required to break even.

The development of Pol an Ionain has been criticised for being environmentally damaging and for being devoid of any features beside the Great Stalactite.