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Explore St Catherine’s Hill Mystery Cave Carvings in 3D

Published on: 16 Jul, 2020
Updated on: 19 Jul, 2020

By David Calow

hon secretary Surrey Archaeological Society

Here’s your chance to explore the mystery medieval cave on St Catherine’s Hill. Follow this link and, thanks to expert 3D imagery by UCL Archaeology South-East, you can go inside to study the cave and its carvings in detail.

Cave with medieval Gothic ‘shrine’ by UCL Archaeology South-East

The unsuspected cave, discovered during major work on the cutting by the southern end of the railway tunnel that passes under the hill, could fill gaps in the story of the medieval St Katherine’s chapel and fair.

In 1329, John de Stratford, Bishop of Winchester, wrote of miracles and the fervent devotion of the faithful at St Katherine’s chapel on Dragehull by Guildford but no known documents explain what he meant.

Perhaps the cave is evidence of a hermit or of the shrine of a long-forgotten healer who played their part in events on the hill.

We can’t be sure if the cave was originally bigger or whether the carvings are 14th century or perhaps as late as the 19th century, like the graffiti cut into the walls of the chapel itself.

Analysis of organic residues taken from the cave should help say when it was used and we await the full report from the archaeologists to tell us more about what was found.

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Responses to Explore St Catherine’s Hill Mystery Cave Carvings in 3D

  1. Daniel Andrew Reply

    July 17, 2020 at 5:23 pm

    Fascinating, thank you.

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