It is over 70 feet high (nearly 23 metres), with amazing acoustics and incredible calcite patterns dancing across the walls. The scale and majesty of this chamber is best appreciated once you get to the bottom of the steps – take a moment to look back and admire its natural splendour.
The famous English poet Alexander Pope built a grotto beneath his house in Twickenham, during the 1700s and filled it with interesting and unusual rocks and crystals. There is a story that one of the stalactites from the Roof of The Great Hall was shot down to be added to his collection of geological specimens.
Whilst we haven’t found evidence that this is true, there is evidence that there were once many more great stalactites in this chamber than you can see today. It is suspected that many were lost after a huge earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 sent shockwaves across the world.
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