The Mysterious Caynton Caves

What appears to be an ordinary rabbit hole in a farmer's field is actually the humble entrance to a large underground cave whose origins are shrouded in mystery.

Located in the grounds of Caynton Hall, near Beckbury, in Shropshire, England, the Caynton Caves were believed to have been dug in the late 18th or early 19th Century, but popular legend associate them with the Knights Templar, a Catholic military order that was founded in the 12th Century, originally to guard pilgrims on their way along the dangerous roads that led to Jerusalem. During the Middle Ages, the order grew rapidly in power and membership to become one of wealthiest and most powerful in Christendom. The order was dissolved in the early 14th century but story of their persecution and sudden dissolution has given rise to many theories and legends revolving around secrets and the mysterious. The Caynton Caves are one of them.

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Photo credit: Michael Scott

Although the caves’ origins are unknown, its unlikely that they are more than two hundred years old, nearly half a millennium after the Templar order was dissolved. A possible explanation is that caves were the result of quarrying during the 19th century, and were then turned by the landowners into a grotto. The caverns comprise a series of neo-Romanesque passages and chambers hollowed out of sandstone, with carved archways, pillars, symbols, and niches, apparently for candles.

The Caynton Caves are suddenly on the news again after a photographer recently gained access to the sealed-off caves located in private property. His pictures—the ones in this article—have appeared on many major publications in the last 24 hours, but the headlines are all click-baity and misleading. Caynton Caves is not a “recent” discovery, and they are not 700-year-old Knights Templar caves.

The Caynton Caves are interesting in their own right without the need to embellish it with sensationalist nonsense.

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