A Bristol cave decorated with rare shells and quartz crystals is reopening to the public for tours. The grade I-listed grotto at Goldney House looks like it belongs in a fantasy film and the University of Bristol is inviting people to learn of the rich heritage in the city’s most famous hidden garden.
The urban gem, nestled behind Goldney House in Clifton Wood, boasts an ornamental grotto believed to be one of the finest surviving examples of an 18th-century grotto in Britain. It is highly decorated inside with rare, exotic shells, ‘Bristol diamonds’ (quartz crystals from the Avon Gorge) and minerals with a pillared hall and a rock pool overlooked by a River God and a Lion’s Den.
Built over 27 years and ornately decorated, it consists of several chambers, divided by pillars bejewelled with minerals, rocks and shells. The River God is seated at the end of a chamber overlooking a cascaded pool with giant clams.
