GiantFamous
Thor's Cave
A god's name on a hole full of old bones.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Huge round cave mouth in a limestone crag
- Legend from
- Place-name tradition
- Tone
- Curious
A cave named for the god of thunder. The bones inside are older than the name.
Thor's Cave gapes from a limestone crag high above the Manifold Valley near Wetton, its great round mouth dark against the pale rock. Its name invites thoughts of the Norse thunder god, but Wikipedia says the origin is uncertain and the link with Thor is unproven. Victorian digs in 1864–65 and later work in 1927–35 found at least seven burials and finds from the Palaeolithic to the Roman period. Llewellynn Jewitt published engravings of bone whistles from the cave in The Reliquary, Haden notes. Mabel Day once confused it with the nearby Green Chapel candidate at Wetton Mill.