Bajóti Lepkés Cave

Bajóti Lepkés Cave is one of the caves located in the Gerecse Landscape Protection Area of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in the outskirts of Bajót. Bats also occur in it.

Description

In the Gerecse Mountains, on the steep, rock‑wall‑segmented western side of Öreg‑kő in the outskirts of Bajót, the cave is situated at the foot of a rock wall, in a forest, with a horizontal entrance axis, 3.5 m high and 2.7 m wide. It is located next to the marked tourist trail leading to Jankovich Cave, from the centre of Bajót. The cave formed in Upper Triassic thick‑bedded Dachstein limestone. Based on the spherical‑chambered forms, it was created by dissolution below the karst water level, due to thermal karst effects. It consists of a spacious entrance chamber and a small inner chamber. It is freely visitable.

In 1989 the cave was first called Bajóti Lepkés Cave in the literature. The cave also appears in the literature under the name Lepkés Cave (Juhász 1986).

Research History

The 1959 Gerecse guidebook mentions that from Bajót the road passes under the steep, rocky descent of the eastern end of Öreg‑kő, where after a 15‑minute walk (on the right side) there is a stone niche at the base of a ledged rock wall. The depressions in the stone niche, which are half‑spherical or cup‑shaped, attest to the cave’s hydrothermal origin and show the work of the breaking, swirling warm spring water in creating the cavity. During the cave visits on 19 January 1986, 15 January 1989 and 12 August 1989, the Vértes László Karst and Cave Research Group determined that there are no bats in Bajóti Lepkés Cave (in the Bajóti Lepkés Cave). The study published in the 1994 Limes and written by Székely Kinga reported that the Bajóti Lepkés Cave with the cave‑cadastral number 4661/13 is not included in Bertalan Károly’s cave library. At the Institute of Speleology the cave has no cadastral record sheet, map, photograph, research record sheet or literature record sheet.

During the cave explorations on 24 January 1998 and 27 July 1998, the Gerecse Cave Exploration and Nature Protection Association determined that there were no bats in the cave. On 10 February 2001, a small whiskered bat and a horseshoe bat were observed in the cave by two members of the Gerecse Cave Exploration and Nature Protection Association, Márton Juhász and Sándor Puskás. The small whiskered bat hung freely at about 3.5 m height on the ceiling of the small inner chamber of the cave. The horseshoe bat hung freely at about 3 m height on the ceiling of the entrance vestibule. Its place of residence practically corresponds to the surface according to light and temperature conditions.

During the cave explorations on 13 May 2001, 17 February 2002, 15 August 2002, 26 January 2003 and 21 June 2003, the association determined that there were no bats in the cave. In 2003, on behalf of the Danube–Ipoly National Park Directorate and for the National Cave Register, two members of the Ariadne Karst and Cave Exploration Association, Richárd Kovács and Evelin Szabó, surveyed the cave. Based on the survey, Richárd Kovács prepared the cave plan map with a cross‑section and a longitudinal section map. According to the survey, the Bajóti Lepkés Cave with cadastral number 4661‑13 is 4 m long, 0.6 m deep and 3.3 m high. During the cave explorations on 24 January 2004, 21 August 2004, 12 February 2006 and 29 July 2006, the Gerecse Cave Exploration and Nature Protection Association determined that there were no bats in the cave.

In Juhász Márton's 2007 study it can be read that the Bajóti Lepkés Cave located in Bajót (Komárom-Esztergom County) has the official cave registry number 4661-13, UTM code CT18C3. Because of its size (4 m long) external meteorological effects are very pronounced in it. In the cave the Gerecse Cave Research and Nature Conservation Association carried out 21 winter and 22 summer (a total of 43) bat observations between 1986 and 2006, of which only 1 winter observation was successful. On 10 February 2001 a single Natterer's bat (Myotis nattereri) was recorded in the entrance chamber and a single lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) in the inner chamber. The freely accessible cave is a popular excursion site nearby, but it is not threatened by significant human disturbance. Currently there is no need for protective measures or intervention.

During the cave visits on 30 January 2009, 23 June 2009, 17 February 2010, 1 July 2010, 30 June 2011, 28 December 2011, 29 June 2012, 27 December 2012, 15 June 2013, 30 December 2013, 1 February 2014, 1 March 2014, 29 March 2014 and 29 June 2014 the Gerecse Cave Research and Nature Conservation Association found that there were no bats in the cave.

According to the 2016 report by Zsolt Polacsek and Julianna Ba, one of the interesting cave groups of Öreg-kő (Öreg-kői 2. sz. zsomboly, Bajóti Ördög-lyuk, Bajóti Lepkés-barlang and Húsvét-barlang) is located in the vicinity of the Öreg-kői 2. sz. zsomboly. At this site the cavities that once formed can be studied in a much more untouched, authentic state. These caves may have been created during thermal karst processes, but because they are only slightly known, there is little trace of their existence in the scientific literature either. Each cavity has its entrance in the rock wall or at its base. Traces of human intervention are present to a far lesser extent than in the Jankovich-cave, Baits-cave, Szalay-cave and possibly the Öreg-kői 1. sz. zsomboly, which together form another cave group of Öreg-kő. The long‑known small Lepkés-barlang is 3 m long according to the cave register. Its spacious cavity is a ruined dome. With a small effort by Zsolt Polacsek, by pulling away the collapsed debris, they were able to crawl into a small chamber on the first attempt, and with its discovery the cave became 7 m long.