Lusta-völgyi Cave

Lusta-völgy Cave is among the specially protected caves of Hungary. It is located in Miskolc, in Bükki National Park.

Description

In the outskirts of Miskolc, in the eastern part of the Nagy-fennsík, near the mouth of the Lusta valley, on a rocky hillside, close to the hilltop, in a forest, at the head of the Kis-kút-lápa valley, at the end of a small incision, are the two natural, irregular, angular entrances. The lower entrance is 5.5 metres wide and 5.3 metres high. The upper entrance is 2.2 metres wide and one metre high. The axis direction of the lower entrance is inclined, the axis direction of the upper entrance is vertical.

The cave formed at the intersection of multiple directional fractures in upper Triassic grey, bedded limestone. It developed in the Hollóstetői Subunit of the Felsőtárkány Limestone Formation. Dissolution below the normal karst water level and probably the outflowing karst water created it, and later, in the transformation of the hydrologically inactive cave, freeze‑thaw rock disintegration played a role. The cave is fissure‑like and gradually rises inward. It is a remnant of an older, larger cave, i.e., a ruin cave. Horn, shaft, dome, half‑tube, wave shell, finger‑tip car, cannelure, hieroglyph, stalagmite, dripstone poisoning, montmilch, crystalline pepperstone and typical, i.e., globular pepperstone can be observed in it. The horizontal extent of the cave is 10 m and its volume is 150 m³. Deneves also occur in the cave. With permission, the larger part of the cave can be traversed with basic caving equipment.

In 1976 the cave was first called Lusta-völgyi-barlang in the literature. The cave also appears in the literature under the names Lustavölgyi barlang (Schőnviszky 1937), Rom-barlang above the Szinva spring (Regős 2003), Várkapu-barlang (Hevesi 1986) and Zsivány II. barlang (Regős 2003). According to József Regős's manuscript inventory of Lusta-völgyi-barlang, it is possible that the Kiskút-lápai-barlang is identical with Lusta-völgyi-barlang. It is not known whether the Lusta-gerinci-barlang (Lénárt 1977) and the Lustai-barlang (Lénárt 1977) are identical with Lusta-völgyi-barlang.

Research history

According to the 1937 study in Turisták Lapja, apart from its name no other data about the Lustavölgyi barlang are known. In the 1975 MKBT Report, published in the report of the MEAFC Marcel Loubens Cave Research Working Group on its 1975 activities, it is stated that the small ruin cave above the Szinva spring is still in limestone. The Hungarian speleology bibliography compiled in 1976 by Károly Bertalan and László Schőnviszky lists the cave in the Bükk Mountains under the name Lusta-völgyi-barlang. The cave name index mentions one literary work dealing with the cave.

In the manuscript titled Magyarország barlangleltára, completed in 1976, it is written that the Lusta-völgyi-barlang is located in the Bükk Mountains, in Bükkszentkereszt. No further data are available about the cave. The part of the manuscript concerning the cave was written based on one publication. In the 1977 publication A „Zsombolyosok”-tól a Marcel Loubens Csoportig, a Lustai-barlang and a Lusta-gerinci-barlang are mentioned, of which it is possible that one is the Lusta-völgyi-barlang.

The book titled Bükk útikalauz, published in 1977, states that in Lusta Valley, besides the Lusta-völgy‑zsomboly, several other small caves and cavities are recorded. József Kárpát surveyed the cave in 1982, and using the survey data he prepared the cave plan map and longitudinal section map. In the national cave list of the book Magyarország barlangjai, published in 1984, the cave located in the Bükk Mountains appears under the name Lusta‑völgyi‑barlang. Among the caves of the Bükk Mountains, the cave listed as Kiskút‑lápai‑barlang is probably not a different cave but the Lusta‑völgyi‑barlang. Related to the list, a 1:500 000 scale map showing the geographic locations of the caves of the Aggtelek Karst and the Bükk Mountains displays the geographic positions of the two caves.

According to the study by Attila Hevesi, published in 1986, the Felső‑forrási‑barlang and the trumpet group opening to the surface at its end are remnants of the passage system through which water from the Kaszás Valley entered the Forrás Valley before the formation of the Kaszás‑réti back‑flow. Compared with this passage system, the large mountain gate‑like, relatively short karst water conduit at the head of the valley, mistakenly called Lusta‑völgyi‑barlang and named Várkapu‑barlang by Hevesi Attila, is probably one of the sources of the Kis‑kút‑lápa. A few meters before the entrance of the cave, the youngest, last segment of the water‑tongue‑turbidite formed by the stepwise retreat of the valley’s deepening deepens into the valley floor. Cave maps made in 1982 were attached to the study.

It is stated in the book chapter written by Attila Hevesi that it first saw daylight in 2002, that at the southwestern head of the valley of Kis-kút-lápa, above a pool-like depression, there is a large entrance 7 meters high and 5 meters wide. It is a strangely shaped and proportioned cave only 11 meters long, but uniformly spacious. It has a four‑meter high chimney opening to the surface and ends in two similar-sized vertical dead-end shafts. The cave may have been preserved as the lower part of a large spring cave, and the place where its stream disappears deep underground finally receded back to the cave entrance.