No 1 Cave of Róka-hegyi quarry

The No 1 cave of the Róka-hegy quarry is a cave located in the Budai Landscape Protection Zone of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in the 3rd district of Budapest.

Description

In one of the already abandoned quarries of Róka-hegy, the southeasternmost mountain of the Pilis range, on a nature‑protected area, the cave opens at the base of the southwestern rock wall. The quarry can be reached by car; proceeding inward on the access road, upon reaching the quarry, the wide entrance of the cave is 4–5 m to the right. On the opposite side of the access road opens the No 2 cave of the Róka-hegy quarry. From the road a well‑trodden path leads to the entrance of the No 1 cave of the Róka-hegy quarry.

The cave formed in Upper Triassic Dachstein limestone by underwater dissolution. Pebble stones can be observed in the cavity and a calcite vein runs through the cave. The 2.5 m long cave is almost untouched. The cave is close to a frequently used road and therefore the cave and its surroundings are most threatened by litter. No equipment is required to visit the cave, which can be entered without permission, because the end of the cave is already visible from the entrance.

The cave also occurs in the literature under the name Western No 1 cave (Sásdi 1997).

Research history

The cave was discovered as a result of stone mining. The Budapest lexicon, which saw the light of day in 1973, mentions that from the depressions of quarries operating or abandoned on the top and sides of Róka-hegy two small (water‑origin) pits and several small artificial cavities open. The cave’s name does not appear in the national cave list of the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984. The cave was surveyed on 22 March 1997 by László Sásdi and Ádám Kovács, after which László Sásdi prepared the cave’s plan map and longitudinal section map based on the survey. Both maps present the cave at a scale of 1 : 100. The plan map shows the location of the longitudinal section within the cave.