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Cave or grotto

The Crystal Grotto

Painshill Park, Cobham, Surrey

A cave glittering with thousands of crystals.

Charles Hamilton created Painshill as a romantic landscape garden in the 1700s. Its grotto, on an island in the lake, was lined with thousands of pieces of crystal, quartz and gypsum, which sparkled in the light reflected off the water.

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When
1760s
Where
51.3300, -0.4300
Group
Caves & grottoes

Visiting

Painshill Park is open daily. The grotto opens at set times.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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