Tilly Whim Caves
The Tilly Whim Caves consist of three underground quarries in Durlston Country Park , one kilometer south of Swanage on the Isle of Purbeck . The Isle is a peninsula in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England .
Tilly Whim is likely an Anglicized version of the Irish Tulach Uamh. Roughly translated, this means "tuber cave". The name may have been derived from a former stone crusher called Tilly, as well as the description for a type of primitive crane, Whim, which was used at the time.
The Tilly Whim Caves are old limestone quarries that were mainly worked during the 18th century. It is a limestone, the Purbeck Stone , which was mined underground. Underground quarrying is relatively rare. The stone breakers and stone cutters worked horizontally into the rock face while mining the stone. They mastered the stone-splitting technique with hammers and wedges, and there were sometimes stonemasons in the quarry who shaped the stone into stone , sinks or troughs. After processing, the stones were loaded directly onto boats by crane, the Whim, and shipped to the quay in Swanage.
The underground stone block mining was stopped in 1810. During the Napoleonic Wars , the rock was used to build fortifications along the south coast of England. After the end of the war in 1815, the demand for this natural stone fell and the caves were completely closed. George Burt opened the Tilly Whim Caves in 1887 as a tourist attraction. The caves were permanently closed to the public in 1976 due to the risk of falling rocks.
Today the abandoned quarries are an undisturbed sleeping place for bats. The cliffs and rocky reef are nesting sites for sea birds. There are several viewpoints around the underground quarries.
The Tilly Whim Caves are part of the Jurassic Coast , a World Heritage Site known for its fossils .
