Dinó Cave

Dinó Cave is a cave located in Csobánka, within the Danube–Ipoly National Park. Its peculiarity is that its upper section formed at the boundary between the Hárshegy sandstone and the underlying karstic rock. Most of the cave has been exposed since 2015, and the researchers who discovered the new part call the cave Kiss Péter Cave, in memory of the Hungarian mountaineer Kiss Péter.

Description

It can be approached via the tourist trail marked with a blue Ω, i.e., blue cave sign, branching off from the blue stripe of the National Blue Trail in the Csobánka ridge. It is located in the southeastern foothills of Ziribár Mountain, west of the centre of Csobánka, about one and a half kilometres away. It opens about 70–75 metres from the Cat Cave. About 15 metres from the Spring Hut, its entrance, transformed by excavation, is at the foot of a sandstone wall (a medieval or even older stone quarry). Its location is marked with a cave symbol on tourist maps.

The entrance and the upper chamber of the cave formed at the boundary between Oligocene Hárshegy sandstone and Dachstein limestone. Most of the passages, however, are already below, in the karstified rock. Its peculiarity is the unusual formations caused by the sandstone cap layer, e.g., carpet‑like barite crystal coatings, a translucent gypsum crust independent of the wall in the All Saints Hall, and, as in other water‑filled caves, all varieties of pepperstone are also present.

The cave is currently 843 metres long and 115 metres deep. Its deepest point is 30 metres deeper than the deepest point of the Cat Cave.

The cave – like the Cat Cave – acts as a lower entrance draft, in winter inward, in summer outward. In summer the exiting draft is well felt at the bat opening or even in the cutout before the entrance when the weather is warm. The draft’s carbon‑dioxide content is high, over 1 %, which suggests that the cave (like the Cat) belongs to a larger, still largely unknown cave system.

Bats also occur there, but in insignificant numbers. The presence of the small mouse‑eared bat, the long‑eared bat and the western barbastelle was recorded in the cave. The cave is not open to visitors, it is locked.

In 1972 the cave was first called Dino‑hideout in the literature. This name was given by the team that discovered the cave entrance because one of the team members had the nickname Dino. The cave appears in the literature under the names Borz‑dream cave (Holl 1988) (there is a similarly named cave, the Borzalom Cave), Dino‑hideout (Baja 1998), Dinó‑hideout cave (Csernavölgyi 1972), Dínórejtek (Csanádi 1998) and Kiss Péter‑cave (Takácsné 2017).

Research History

In 1971 the VMTE Tectonics Cave Research Group studied the cave. The 1971 group report states that they also explored an unnamed small cave a few metres from the Cat Cave and advanced 8–12 m inside it. They planned to produce a map of the cave that same year. The 1972 group report writes that in their long‑mountain work area, near the Cat Cave, they uncovered a cave about 40 m long, which they named the Dino‑hideout cave. The 1972 Karst and Cave Research Bulletin brought the discovery to light, but the publication reported that the cave received the name Dino‑hideout.

In the book published in 1974 titled Pilis útikalauz, in the list of caves of the Pilis Mountains and the Visegrád Mountains (pages 19–20), it is mentioned that between the caves of the Pilis Mountains and the Visegrád Mountains there is the Dinó-rejtek. According to the section describing the caves of the Pilis Mountains, in 1972 the members of the Vörös Meteor Tektonik Barlangkutató Csoport uncovered the Dinó-rejteks near the Macska Cave, which are about 40 m long. In the manuscript written by Bertalan Károly and completed in 1976 it can be read that the Dinó-rejtek is located in the Pilis Mountains, in the Pilis ridge, in Csobánka. Its entrance is near the Macska Cave and the Tavasz hut. The cave is 40 m long and suitable for bivouac. The part of the manuscript about the cave was written based on one literary work.

In the national cave list of the book Magyarország barlangjai published in 1984, the cave Dinó-rejtek appears among the caves of the Pilis Mountains. Associated with the list is a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographical location of the caves of the Dunazug Mountains, indicating the cave’s geographical position. In the 1985 report of the Karszt Barlangkutató Csoport it can be read that, according to experts, it is very likely that there is a direct connection with the Macska Cave. However, there is no proven geological relationship between the two caves. The entrance of the Dinó-rejtek is located 70 m from the Macska Cave and about 8 m higher than the level of the Macska Cave. The Dinó-rejtek is almost entirely of a collapsed nature. The group, when exploring the cave, determined that it is an old cavern that is heavily filled with fallen stone blocks.

The floor of the cave consists of the top of the debris and the ceiling of the cave is identical to the main ceiling of the cavern. A precise cave map must then be drawn of the cave, based on which observations can be made and which can also determine the direction of later research. In 1985 the group removed the loose stone blocks from the cave entrance and made a relatively comfortable place for later dismantling, as well as for the survey of the cave. By cleaning the entrance the group took the first steps in order to prove its connection with the Macska-cave.