Hello! My name is Justine and I have recently moved to the UK from a small Ontario town of 8000. I am working as a teacher in a local school and have been having a wonderful time exploring life in the UK! I update my own blog quite often with funny or interesting things that I discover throughout Buckinghamshire.
When we awoke Sunday morning, the skies were gorgeous and blue so we decided to head out on an adventure to the Hellfire Caves. Now these caves are pretty cool because they were dug out at the request of Sir Francis Dashwood in 1750 in a bid to quench the unemployment in the town.
The chalk from the caves was used to pave a road into High Wycombe. The caves themselves played host to meetings of the Hellfire Club whose members included Benjamin Franklin among many others and while going through the tunnels you come cross several scenes that portray the members talking about various things (we didn’t slow down at these points). At the deepest point in the caves you are about 300 feet below the mausoleum which can be seen for miles and whose design was influenced by Dashwood’s own travels throughout Europe.
Now you may not know this, but I spook easy. On this trip I was doing great if I do say so myself, but throughout the tunnels they have some really dark sections and other sections with the scariest mannequins I have ever seen. Such as the one above with the children. I am glad I have never met the person who thought,”Hey, you know what the tourists would really love? Scary children mannequins staring off into space. And just in case it doesn’t spark their imagination, we’ll add a red light.”
Another cool part of the caves is the giant hill you can climb to visit the mausoleum and church, which still has services on Sundays. I must say that I believe these parishioners may be the most devout I have come across because to climb this hill once a week would be horrible. Also, at this point it had started raining and was crazy slippery on the mud paths.
However, this was all worth it as you could see really far in every direction and we got to really see all of the surrounding farms and pastures. Of course right after the above picture is when the hail began, and by the time we made it back down I swear I had enough hail to make a snowman in my shirt. This naturally ended our adventure and sent us into a local pub for a tea and sit by the fire. Overall, it was an awesome adventure.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
What an interesting place to visit and I loved the photos! I’ll be sure to visit the scary caves in the spring! Thanks for the info!
What do wild adventure, I’m not sure about being 300 below ground though, that kind of freaks me out!!
I grew up in High Wycombe and no Hughenden park like the back of my hand. I spend all my waking hours there if I wasn’t in school ( lived 5 mins away ).. Oh to be there now!! Great read, thanks!!
Wish I had moved to England years ago. Love it everytime I visit. Enjoy yourself and thank you for the wonderful blog and pictures.