Things to Do in Tipperary

Mitchelstown Cave, Burncourt: Tipperary's Great Show Cave

Under the limestone of south Tipperary lies a vast system of chambers that has drawn visitors since 1833.

Mitchelstown Cave is a show cave at Burncourt, County Tipperary, found by accident on 3 May 1833 and open to visitors on guided tours ever since. It is in Tipperary, not Cork, despite the name. It lies about 13 km from Ardfinnan, and entry is by advance booking only.

Why the name confuses people

Mitchelstown is a town in County Cork. The cave is about 12 km from it, according to Wikipedia, but over the county line in Tipperary. The cave’s own address is Burncourt, Cahir, Co. Tipperary. Its website says it is about 40 minutes from Cork City and 20 minutes from the Rock of Cashel, with access from the M8 at exit 11 or 12.

A quarryman’s discovery

The story is simple. On 3 May 1833, Michael Condon was quarrying limestone when he found an opening. The cave’s website says he was retrieving a dropped crowbar from a crevice when he realised it led into a large network of underground chambers.

Visitors followed almost at once. Wikipedia records that guided candlelit tours ran from 1833 until 1972, when electricity and footpaths were installed, and dates the cave’s development as Ireland’s first show cave to 1972. Today it is run privately, with its own site and booking line.

Scientists and surveyors

Early on, the cave attracted people who wanted to measure it. According to Wikipedia:

• Dr James Apjohn, professor of geology at Trinity College Dublin, mapped it in 1834.
• The naturalists Alexander Henry Haliday and Edward Percival Wright visited in 1857 and recorded animal species there.
• George Victor Du Noyer sketched it for the Geological Survey of Ireland in 1860.
• Édouard-Alfred Martel and H. Lyster Jameson carried out a new survey in 1895.
• In 1908 the Yorkshire Ramblers’ Club, with Robert Lloyd Praeger, surveyed it again.

The image at the top of this page is from that tradition: a 1905 plate of a column in a chamber called The Garret, published in the Irish Naturalist.

What is underground

The cave is a system of interconnected chambers, passages and caverns, known for its speleothems, the mineral formations that grow in limestone caves. Two names stand out in Wikipedia’s account: the column called the Tower of Babel, and the largest cavern, Tír na Nóg, which has hosted concerts and events.

Only some caverns are open to the public. The tour is guided, so you see the route the staff choose rather than wandering. The official site does not give a tour length in the text we could read, so ask when you book.

Why it matters

Show caves are common in some countries. In Ireland they are rare, which is why Wikipedia’s dating of Mitchelstown as Ireland’s first developed show cave to 1972 is worth noting. Limestone country like this part of Tipperary is where the best caves occur, and the cave is cut into the same rock that quarrymen were working when Michael Condon made his find.

The detail of the discovery also tells you something about the place. Nobody went looking for a great cavern. A man dropped a tool, reached into a crack, and found that the ground beneath the quarry was hollow. Within a year a professor from Trinity College Dublin had mapped it. That quick turn from accident to scientific attention is part of what makes the cave’s history unusually well documented.

More than a tourist stop

The cave’s website says it has appeared in screen productions, including the History Channel series Vikings and Apple TV’s Foundation, and has hosted a pop-up restaurant, a pop-up cinema and cave concerts. Ireland’s first underground seismic station was installed there in 2022, and the cave is now solar powered.

Planning a visit

Because the cave is privately run, hours, prices and tour times are the owners’ to set, and entry is by advance booking only. Phone (052) 7467246 (+353 52 74 67 246 from abroad) or use mitchelstowncave.com. Wear sensible shoes, as you would for any underground tour, and ask the staff when booking about access and what to bring.

From Ardfinnan

Mitchelstown Cave is about 13 km from Ardfinnan, a short drive that works well after a look at the Norman castle from the village bridge. Pair it with Cahir Castle or the Rock of Cashel using our guide to things to do near Ardfinnan, or see more in Tipperary attractions.