Shatter Cave is a cave in Fairy Cave Quarry

Fairy Cave Quarry

Fairy Cave Quarry is between Stoke St Michael and Oakhill in the limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England.Quarrying was first started on the site in the early 1920s. In 1963 the quarry was acquired by Hobbs Ltd., and production on a much larger scale began...

, near Stoke St Michael

Stoke St Michael

Stoke St Michael is a village and civil parish on the Mendip Hills north east of Shepton Mallet, and west of Frome, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England.-History:...

 in the limestone of the Mendip Hills

Mendip Hills

The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Avon Valley to the north...

, in Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It falls within the St. Dunstan's Well Catchment

St. Dunstan's Well Catchment

St. Dunstan's Well Catchment is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, covering near Stoke St Michael in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, notified in 1967.Formerly known as Stoke St Michael Slocker.- Geological :...

 Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

.

The name commemorates the damage, done by blasting in the quarry, to some of the decoration within the cave.

Description

Shatter Cave has been described as being one of the finest decorated caves in Britain in terms of their sheer abundance of pure white and translucent calcite

Calcite

Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate . The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Aragonite will change to calcite at 380-470°C, and vaterite is even less stable.-Properties:...

 deposits.
The floor of Diesel Chamber includes some fine gour

Rimstone

Rimstone, also called gours, is a type of speleothem in the form of a stone dam. Rimstone is made up of calcite and other minerals that build up in cave pools. The formation created, which looks like stairs, often extends into flowstone above or below the original rimstone. Often, rimstone is...

s, Helicite Rift contains heligmites and a stalactite

Stalactite

A stalactite , "to drip", and meaning "that which drips") is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone...

 curtain, and Pillar Chamber contains a 3 metres (10 ft) high white pillar as well as one of the finest crystalline gour floors in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. Tor Chamber, Portcullis Grottoes and Pisa Passage are also highly decorated.

Access

The Fairy Caves Management Committee administers the access to this cave on behalf of the quarry owners. In order to protect the calcite formations, novices are not allowed to enter Shatter Cave.

External links

• Shatter Cave - Mendip Cave Registry and Archive