Vörös Cave

The Red Hole is a cave located in the Vértes Mountains in the Danube–Ipoly National Park, in Vértessomló.

Description

The cave is situated in the outskirts of Vértessomló. From the Szarvas-kút spring, heading roughly 200 m east, the cave can be seen on the right side along the trail marked with the blue stripe of the National Blue Trail, which runs at the bottom of the valley; it is about 10 m above the trail on the north side of the valley. Both the 5 m high rock wall that encloses the cave and the cave entrance are easily noticeable in the sparse forest, even during the leafy season. The cave’s location is marked on tourist maps with a cave symbol. The natural, triangular, horizontally oriented entrance is 0.9 m wide and 1.9 m high and is located in thick‑bedded fractured limestone.

The cavity extends in Triassic limestone. Above the entrance the prominent crack along which the cave formed is clearly visible. Later the crack widened. The enlargement (and the formation of the cave) was caused by freeze‑thaw rock disintegration and corrosion. After the entrance the cave turns right at a right angle into a cross‑direction fissure, and after another 3 m it turns again at a right angle into an impassable‑size fissure. At the meeting of the two large fissures the cave widens, and one can even stand inside it. On the ceiling of the entrance section, as well as on the left wall, well‑developed pea‑stones and solution marks are present. Inside, its walls are damp, water gathers on them in droplets. The walls are very algal. The fill consists mainly of soil and some rock debris. In the entrance there is a pit 80 × 40 cm in size. The cave can be approached with an easy walk, and no permission is required to walk its easily traversable interior.

In 1979 the cave was mentioned for the first time in literature under the name Vörös-lyuk. The cave also occurs in literature under the names Szarvaskúti-barlang (Polacsek 1990) and Vöröslyuk (Bertalan 1976).

Research history

In the manuscript titled *Magyarország barlangleltára* completed in 1976 it can be read that the Vöröslyuk is located in the Vértes Mountains, in Vértessomló. The 3 m long cave is situated on the side of the valley called Vörös-lyuk, on a nice, rocky section. The part of the manuscript describing the cave was written based on the guidebook authored by Géza Polgárdy, published in 1939.

According to the manuscript prepared by the Alba Regia Cave Research Group in 1979, Vörös-lyuk is entry number 36 in the OKTH cave inventory among the caves of the Vértes Mountains. The inventory contains only the note that the 3 m long cave is located on the side of the Vörös-lyuk valley, on a nice, rocky section. The group members did not find a cave in the Vörös-lyuk valley, but they came across a cave near the K end of the valley. This cavity is most likely the one listed in the cave inventory. The cave lies on the edge of Vértessomló (Komárom county), D, 300 m from the Szarvas well. Following the blue stripe tourist sign of the National Blue Trail from the Szarvas well to D, after a 300 m walk the cave entrance is visible on the right side of the path and can also be seen from the road. The entrance is about 10 m higher than the valley floor, on the side of a limestone block facing the valley. The triangular entrance is 2 m high and 1 m wide.

The cave formed in thick‑bodied, fragmented limestone along a fissure due to rock fragmentation and corrosion. The 5 m long entrance corridor that narrows inward connects to a cave chamber created along a cross‑direction fissure. To the left, after 1 m it ends with a flat slab that formed along a narrow fissure. To the right the passage washes out, then turns and narrows. At the junction of the entrance corridor and the cross‑direction branch a fractured‑wall, 2.5 m high vault is visible. The vault was formed along the fissure that defines the cave branch. On its wall (especially on the ceiling of the entrance corridor) there are beautiful cold‑water pea stones. In the cavity many cave cross spiders were observed by the group members. Imre Göncöl can show the cave that is not worth further investigation.

The manuscript contains the cave plan map and three cross‑section maps. The maps depict the cave at a scale of 1:100. The plan map is marked with the east‑west direction on the map sheet. The location of the three cross‑sections in the cave is visible on the plan map. The cave was surveyed by Imre Göncöl and Károly Kökény on 25 February 1979. In that year, using the survey, Ferenc Zentai drew the cave maps. The manuscript shows a map of Várgesztes and its surroundings (approximately 1:25 000 scale). The map is marked with the east‑west direction. The geographical location of Vörös‑lyuk can be seen on the map. The manuscript includes three photographs illustrating the cave. The first photograph shows the rock wall enclosing the cave and the cave entrance, the second photograph shows the surrounding environment visible from the cave. The third photograph presents the pea stones above the cave entrance. The photographs were taken by Imre Göncöl.

In the national cave list of the book *Caves of Hungary* published in 1984, the cave appears among the caves of the Vértes Mountains under the name Red Hole. Associated with the list, the geographical location of the cave is shown on a 1:500 000 scale map presenting the geographical location of the caves of the Danube Hills. In 1990 Monika Bajusz and Zsolt Polacsek (two members of Külker SC) surveyed the cave, and using the survey Zsolt Polacsek prepared a plan map of the Szarvaskúti Cave (Vértes Mountains) and a longitudinal section map. The maps depict the cave at a scale of 1:100. According to the survey the cave is 6 m long.