Scott's Grotto
Ware, Hertfordshire
In the 1760s and 1770s the Quaker poet John Scott dug a series of chambers and passages into a hillside in his garden, decorating them with shells, flints, pebbles and coloured glass. The tunnels run for around 20 metres.
Read the full story, see it on the map, get directions and find what else is nearby in the free Hidden Britain Atlas map.
- When
- 1760s–1770s
- Where
- 51.8100, -0.0400
- Group
- Caves & grottoes
Visiting
Opens on summer weekends. Bring a torch.

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.
Nearby mysteries
- The Mowing-DevilCrop circle · Hertfordshire · 2 miles away
- Rye HousePlot · Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire · 4 miles away
- Jane Wenham, the Wise Woman of WalkernWitches · Walkern, Hertfordshire · 8 miles away
- King Harold's GraveMysterious grave · Waltham Abbey, Essex · 9 miles away
- White WebbsPlot · Enfield, London · 10 miles away
- The Enfield PoltergeistHaunted place · Enfield, London · 11 miles away