On the Whitsuntide weekend (a bank holiday in mid-June) of 1952, students Brian Varley and JM Dickenson aged 19 and 20 respectively, embarked on the vacation of a lifetime. They were exploring the rugged natural terrain of Lisdoonvarna, a small town north of County Clare in west Ireland. The Burren, as this region is colloquially known, was till then a largely unexplored area.
Noticing a thin stream of water disappearing into a cliff face, the two enthusiastic young spelunkers set out to investigate where it might lead to. They began by removing boulders and digging a narrow passageway under the cliff, wide enough for them to crawl through. They crawled through narrow and difficult terrain for nearly 500 metres, spurred on by sheer gumption.
Their labour finally bore fruit when they chanced on the chamber of a deep underground cave where a magnificent sight met them. It was a colossal stalactite suspended from the ceiling—Europe’s largest and the longest free-hanging one in the Northern Hemisphere—in what is now known as the Doolin Cave.
They later described their discovery thus: “Scrambling over boulders, we stood speechless in a large chamber, of ample width, length and impressive height. As our lamps circled this great hall we picked out a gigantic stalactite, certainly over 30 feet in length, the only formation in the chamber and set proudly in the very centre.