I clearly remember my mother and father taking me up to Millican
Dalton's cave. In the dim emptiness of the cavern staccato sounds
broke the the still air. The dank notes of dripping water and the
peels of slate shards scattered underfoot. They made a lonely accompaniment
to the echoes of ceaseless chatter and flickering fireside laughter
that still fill the cavern today, if you listen hard enough.
Millican Dalton made this place his summer home for nigh on
fifty years and his spirit is easily invoked in the cool air
of a quiet summer's evening. |
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The mouth of Millican Dalton's Cave
from the terrace.
The lower and attic caves can be clearly seen. Abundant nettles
attest to the human habitation.
Millican Dalton lived here during the summer for the last 50 years
of his life. He is reported to have grown potatoes outside the cave,
though the land in front of the cave is very shallow, so the beds
must have been at a more distant location
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The view from the lower cave on
a showery spring evening.
Millican Dalton used this cave as his living quarters.
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The interior of the
lower cave.
You can clearly see the remains of the low walls which Millican Dalton
built to divide the rooms.
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The view from the mouth
of the attic cave where Millican Dalton had his sleeping quarters.
Nora Dalton, the wife of Millican Dalton's nephew, was taken there
by her husband in 1957. She said "He had already been dead quite
a while then, but the place was much as it had been. It's changed
now. I went back in 1999, the sleeping area in the attic had gone."
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An itinerant camper
emulates Millican Dalton by setting up a tent in the attic cave.
The attic cave is not as deep as the lower cave and offers less
shelter from the weather.
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A sign put up by the
landowner, The National Trust, prohibiting fires or the collection
of wood.
Would there still be room for Millican Dalton today? The answer
is no.
The itinerant camper in the photo above was evicted by the National
Trust for "fly camping".
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