Hét Hole

The Seven-hole is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Danube–Ipoly National Park. It is the only bat cave in the Buda Mountains. Large quantities of phosphate-containing guano were mined from it. It is the second longest cave of the Remete Gorge, the longest being the Remete Hill cave No. 8.

Description

In the Buda Landscape Protection Area, on the eastern side of the Remete Gorge, in the outskirts of Remeteszőlős, not far from the Budapest border, in shrubbery, on the top of Remete Hill, in a roof‑peripheral position, in a fissure extending toward the D side of the valley, at the DK side of the opening, in a rock shelter located in a highly protected area, the seven entrances open. Of the entrances that are close to each other, four have a vertical axis direction, three have a sloping axis direction. The cave’s location and name appear on tourist maps, but no marked tourist trail leads to it. The upper entrance of Remete Hill cave No. 8 is about 10 m south‑north of the westernmost entrance of the Seven‑hole. It is about 200 m in a straight line from the Remete cave to K–ÉK. It is situated on the upper cave level of the Remete Gorge (this level lies 130 m above the valley floor, at an altitude of 400 m above sea level).

The I entrance is oval, vertically oriented, 0.65 m wide and 2.3 m high. The II entrance is irregular, vertically oriented, 3.9 m wide and 6.1 m high. The III entrance is irregular, vertically oriented, 3.61 m wide and 2.6 m high. The IV entrance is oval, vertically oriented, 0.7 m wide and 1.5 m high. The V entrance is oval, sloping, 1.1 m wide and 1.7 m high. The VI entrance is curved, sloping, 2.3 m wide and 4.2 m high. The VII entrance is irregular, sloping, 1.05 m wide and 1.2 m high.

Upper Triassic thick-bedded Dachstein limestone, primarily formed by dissolution below the karst water level, secondarily by collapse. The formation by collapse is a secondary process, but it is very visible. In literature it is also referred to as a water sink cave. A multi‑level spatially shaped cave. Among the large forms, a shaft, a dome and a spherical chamber can be observed. Its small forms are the spherical dome, the ceiling channel and the ceiling pockets. Weakly developed stalactite, weakly developed flowstone, weakly developed straw stalactite, weakly developed stalactite rod, weakly developed stalactite crust, stalactite flow have formed in the passages, which are currently in a deteriorating state, and on the uppermost parts condensed pepperstone.

Divisible into two parts. Its upper part is a ruin cave. In the Lower Cave, starting from the bottom of the Bottomless Shaft, there was a large amount of bat guano. Bats still occur in the cave today. The largest chamber is the Large Hall, 10 m long, 10 m high and on average 3 m wide. The hall contains its deepest point, 33 m deep. No permission is required to visit the cave, but full traversal requires the use of rope techniques. Very many fixed nuts of various conditions are placed inside. Through three entrances one can enter without rope techniques. The Lower Cave is traversable only with rope techniques.

The cave got its name because of its seven entrances. The cave appears in its literature as cave number 9 (Horváth, Szunyogh 1971), Budai Hétlyuk (Sebős 1932), Bottomless pit (Bertalan 1966), Guano cave (Kazay 1915), Guánó-cave (Bertalan 1966), Hét-luk (Kraus 2004), Hétlyuk (Kadić 1932), Hét lyuk (Horn 1932), Hétlyuk-cave (Pápa 1966), Hét-lyuk-cave (Horváth, Szunyogh 1971), Hétlyuk cave (Bertalan 1976), Hétlyukcave (Pápa 1938), Hét-lyuk cave system (Bertalan 1976), Hétlyuk-pit (Leél-Őssy 1950), Hétlyuk pit (Topál 1954), Hét-lyuk-pit (Kordos 1984), Hét-lyuk pit (Bertalan 1976), Remete-hegyi 9th cave (Kordos 1984), Remetehegyi 9th cave (Bertalan 1976), Remetehegyi cave (Kadić 1952), Remetehegyi seven-hole (Kadić 1919), remete-hegyi Hét-lyuk (Kordos 1984), remetehegyi Hétlyuk (Bertalan 1966), Remetehegyi seven holes (Barcza, Thirring 1920), Remetehegyi Hétlyuk (Kessler 1931), Remete-hegyi-pit (Bertalan, Schőnviszky 1973–1974) and Remetehegyi pit (Barlangvilág 1933) names as well.

1877–1932

The 1877 Archaeological Bulletin mentions that the antiquities department of the Hungarian National Museum was enriched in November by 1 (animal-derived) lower jawbone, 2 bones and 3 pieces of pottery. These finds, which came from a rock cleft located near Remetemária in Buda, were donated to the museum by Lajos Lóczy. The 1904 Budapest Antiquities notes that the rock clefts of Remetemária were probably Stone Age pasture sites, from which Lajos Lóczy (Archaeological N., 168/1877.) brought coarse pottery fragments to the Hungarian National Museum.

In the 1915 volume of Turisták Lapja, according to an article written by Endre Kazay, Endre Kazay and Gyula (Juliusz) Tödter went on a hike to the Máriaremetei gorge on an October day to examine the gorge’s caves. Gyula Tödter knew the gorge’s topography well, but they still did not find the Guano cave. They intended to approach the cave from the mountain ridge and wandered a lot in the area, as the route shown on the attached site map indicates. The cave entrance is trumpet-shaped and therefore not easy to enter, and in the past a lot of guano was found inside. The publication shows the site map of the Máriaremetei cave region, on which the geographical location of the Guano cave is marked. The site map was made by Endre Kazay.