beer quarry caves

Good evening, friends.

Yesterday, we went to the Beer Quarry Caves in the afternoon. We walked about a mile from our hostel to the cave entrance, where we were instructed to don bright yellow hard hats before we entered the earth’s bowels. Sorry for that image—I think I’ve been reading too much Milton. 

can we spelunk it? yes we can!

the galbraith family enters courageously

 Our tour guide was a cheerful Brit named Oliver who was pushing 75. He had a well-rehearsed and humorous speech that he recited jovially as he took us on a 5 acre tour of the man-made caves. The Romans began digging the caves around 74 A.D. when they noticed the abundance of white stone in Beer; since then, the quarry operated until 1900, allowing centuries of quarry men to dig an astonishing 76 acres underground. Stone from Beer quarry is actually in many famous cathedrals (St. Paul’s, Westminster, Salisbury).

a cathedral window that had been carved in the quarry

folks have gotten lost down there...

The tour lasted about an hour. I’m not usually one for cold (40 degrees), dark, dank places, but Oliver kept the exhibition enjoyable as he told anecdotes of ghosts, educated us about the history of the caves, and demonstrated to us how hard a quarry man’s life actually was. This last part really got me—we see these amazing cathedrals, but we rarely stop to ponder how hard it truly was to create something of such splendor. Quarry men worked 14 hour days, chipping away by candle-light to produce two or three 4 ton blocks that would be carted off miles away to a cathedral sight, carved by a stone-mason, and assembled. Just the sheer manpower of it is incredible. 

it was hard to take photos-- so dark down there, but i managed to capture one of the stone pillars

Afterwards, I headed with Sophie and LucyRose to the beach, where we explored a bit (found a sea-cave, but haven’t gotten to go in it…maybe wait till low tide?) before Sophie and LucyRose waded into the water for a dip. The ocean water here is icy cold, so I declined, but I took a few pictures.

ocean exploring

basically mermaids

This afternoon, it was rainy and drizzly-- the fog baptized the country-side in heavy-handed whiteness. I spent most of the day inside, reading. 

School work is bearing down and wifi is scarce, so apologies if I don’t update any in the next few days.

As always, thanks for reading, folks!