[Cheryle Coyne]

My Mum (Barbara Scott) and Aunt (Patricia Scott) are in this photo, they lived in East cliff and spent a lot of time in the caves during the war.

[kyn]

Photos replaced

[cliveh]

Athol Caves:

cliveh

[merc]

.

[merc]

The Times - Saturday, March 07, 1891

Considerable interest has been caused at Dover by the discovery of an extensive range of caves in the cliff to the eastward of the town. A portion of the face of cliff having been knocked in, the entrance to a cave was discovered. Candles were procurred, and investigation showed that the first cave led into a long passage, which ran under the cliff at the back of Athol Terrace houses, while there were a number of other caves and passages branching off from it in different directions. The passages are tunnelled in the cliff beneath the castle, and it is stated that they were closed up by the military authorities at the time of the threatened French invasion. The Royal Engineers department have taken possesion of the caves, and they will again be closed up.

[TowerWill]

I first went into this tunnel complex when we were chased by a policeman for being up on Leney's brewery roof(see Dover Townwall Street 1960'ish).
It certainly is an amazing place.Entering near where the Sports Centre is now and coming out by the bottom of the East Cliff path was quite a surprise.I wonder if there are higher levels of unconnected tunnels above this complex other than the ones we know about.E.H. probably would not be very open about all the sites they look after.

[unfairytale]

I like this piece of graffiti from the Trevanion end of the tunnels.
Number, name, rank, date and address.

[unfairytale]

That's the entrance to the Guilford tunnel. It was dug to connect the Athol Terrace Caves with the Trevanion Caves. The interior sloping wall on the right leads to the castle drain sump. Which from memory is about 15 feet below floor level and leads back up to the castle via a bunch of inter-connecting drains.

 Incidentally all the black dust you can see in the Trevanion Caves is coal dust. In 1822 the Dover Gas Company set up their premises in Trevanion Street, roughly where the sports centre now stands, and the caves were used to store coal. The company also dug a well near there to provide it's water supply, the amount available was great enough to provide much of the St.James's parish with fresh water.

[kyn]

I can see why, they are pretty well hidden!

[unfairytale]

Nice to see you took a picture of the stairs that lead up to the old water tank. It's surprising how many people miss those.

[kyn]

A little while ago four of us managed to visit these caves by permission and a small tunnel nearby . 

[unfairytale]

Off the top of my head. it's the entrance at Athol Terrace.There's a load of garages in front of it now. I could be wrong as I'm just recovering from A bottle of Hardy's Merlot.

[kyn]

Which entrance is this?

[ali23]

What about the shelter just before you walk down East Cliff. with the green wooden padlocked door. Know anything about that?

I think thats an entrance to a well/cable tunnel for the castle  ???

yes it is, it's not worth looking at as you can only go 100 yards along then it is straight up!

[kyn]

What about the shelter just before you walk down East Cliff. with the green wooden padlocked door. Know anything about that?

I think thats an entrance to a well/cable tunnel for the castle  ???