Kevély-nyergi Cave

Kevély-nyergi Cave is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in the Pilis Mountains within the Danube–Ipoly National Park. It is also described in tourist guidebooks.

Description

The cave’s three entrances are located about 140 m southeast of the Kevély-nyergi tourist house. They are situated directly near the blue‑band marked tourist trail of the National Blue Trail (the section of which is named Redlinger Adolf Road and was formerly called Szódás Road). The entrances are positioned lower than the tourist trail, about 8 m away. While walking on the marked path toward the tourist house, the openings are on the left side of the trail. The yellow‑band and green‑band marked tourist trails leading from Pilisborosjenő to Kevély-nyereg also pass here.

The cave opens on the steep, rocky and bushy slope of Nagy‑Kevély, in a rock‑climbing area. Of the three natural and irregularly shaped entrances, the upper one is blocked and was vertically oriented. The slope‑oriented entrance is 2.7 m wide and 1.4 m high. The horizontal‑oriented entrance is 1 m wide and 90 cm high. Near the entrances there is a lot of litter and construction waste.

Single‑level, branching and dead‑end passage cave. Of water origin, inactive. Formed below the karst water level by dissolution in upper Triassic white calcareous, compact, thick‑bedded, Dachstein limestone and dolomite. Spherical stalactites, columns, mountain milk, dripstone encrustations, condensed pea‑stones, re‑dissolved dripstone and small dripstone slabs have formed inside. The horizontal extent of the cave is 15 m. The cave can be visited without special equipment or permission as it is not closed. Foxes are known to live in it.

In 1974 the cave was first called Kevély-nyergi-rókalyuk in its literature. The cave appears in its literature under the names Kevélynyeregi rókalyuk (Thuróczy 1964), Kevély-nyergi-barlang (Kovács, Kovács 2003), Kevély-nyergi barlang (Kordos 1984), Kevélynyergi barlang (Bertalan 1976), Kevélynyergi-rókalyuk (Leél-Őssy 1958), Kevélynyergi rókalyuk (Kordos 1970), Róka-lyuk (Dely, Mezei 1974), Rókalyuk (Józsa 1967), Turistaházi-barlang (Kordos 1984), Turistaházi barlang (Thuróczy 1964) and Túristaházi-barlang (Leél-Őssy 1958).

Research history

The guidebook published in 1920 by Imre Barcza and Gusztáv Thirring mentions that from the road between Pilisborosjenő and Csobánka, climbing the bushy slope on the steep side of Kevély-nyereg, a multi‑entrance cave can be found very close to the ridge. The 1924 publication titled Budapest Duna‑jobbparti környéke repeats the part of the 1920 book that mentions Kevély-nyergi-rókalyuk.

According to a manuscript about the 1970 work of the Speleology Cave Research Group, the study written by László Schőnviszky and published in 1937 mentions Kevély-nyergi-rókalyuk on page 151, but László Schőnviszky (on page 151) probably refers to the Gyopáros cave. On page 151 it is written that there is a small cavity awaiting exploration on the D side of Nagy‑Kevély. In 1943 István Venkovits surveyed Kevély-nyergi-rókalyuk, and using the survey he produced a 1:50 scale plan map of the cave and 13 cross‑section maps. According to the survey the cave is 26 m long and about 4 m deep.

In the study written by Sándor Leél-Őssy and published in 1958, it is mentioned that the Túristaházi Cave (Kevélynyergi foxhole) is located at about 400 m above sea level. The small multi‑entrance cave has very difficult to traverse, narrow, low and branching passages in several places. The cave was formed in Dachstein limestone. It is probably of karst origin, because there are spherical chambers and aragonite crystals in it, but most of the latter have been destroyed. A map sketch was attached to the study, which presents the Kevély mountain group. The map sketch shows the geographical location of the Kevély‑nyergi foxhole. On the drawing and in the text the cave is marked with the number 13.

According to the book published in 1964 titled *Along the National Blue‑Trail*, the Turistaházi Cave (Kevélynyéri foxhole) is in the Kevély mountain group, and it is multi‑entrance and difficult to traverse. In 1965 the József Szabó Geological Technical School Cave Research Group had the Kevély ridge as its research area, and in that year the group members explored the Kevély‑nyergi foxholes.

In the book titled Pilis útikalauz published in 1967, the cave is described briefly, without a cave name. The description states that a few meters from the Kevély-nyergi tourist house, at a distance of a few meters to the DK, on the steep, rocky and bushy mountainside, there is a small cave a few meters long with multiple entrances. In 1967 three members of the Szabó József Geological Technical School Cave Research Group, László Kordos, Ferenc Lechner and Miklós Somogyi, surveyed the cave with lost points, a Freiberg hanging compass, a protractor, and based on the survey László Kordos edited and drew the cave floor plan map, which presents the cave at a scale of 1:100. According to the survey the cave is 42 m long and 6 m deep. According to the 1967 report of the Szabó József Geological Technical School Cave Research Group the group surveyed the cave in 1967 along a polygon with a hanging compass and protractor, which is a karst object located at one of their workplaces.

On 5 April 1970 Erzsébet Wehovszky examined the dripping water of the cave. On 10 May 1970 eight small bat species and one common bat were observed in it. The 1970 report of the Speleology Cave Research Group contains a detailed description of the cave and its research history. The report states that a low‑quality black‑and‑white photograph was made of it, that hanging dripstones and small white aragonite nodules are present in the cave, that limonite and calcite can be seen in the rock fractures, and that longitudinal‑section cave maps and cross‑sections were also produced in 1967.