No 6 Cave of Róka-hegyi quarry

The No 6 cave of the Róka-hegy quarry is one of the caves located in the Budai Landscape Protection Zone of the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in District III of Budapest.

Description

In one of the already non‑operated (conglomerate) quarries of Róka-hegy, the southeasternmost mountain of the Pilis range, on the D‑side corner of the quarry, about 15 m above the quarry floor, the cave entrance opens. The cave can be visited without permission and without basic caving equipment, only by using a light source.

The cave was formed in Eocene limestone under phreatic conditions. The approximately 2 m long entrance corridor leads to the spherical chamber that forms the end point of the cave. On the right side of the corridor a barite vein runs continuously.

In its literature the cave also appears under the names Barittéres‑cave (Sásdi 1997) and Róka‑hegy quarry Barittéres‑cave. These names were given because of the barite vein observable in the cave.

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 Richárd Kovács, after which László Sásdi prepared the floor‑plan map of Barittéres‑cave (Róka‑hegy quarry) based on the survey. The map presents the cave at a scale of 1 : 100.