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Grotte de Bernifal 7

France France Cave with prehistoric art

Bernifal cave

13 °C inside, all year.

No public accessPrehistoric art

See the descentHow to visit

Thilo Parg · CC BY-SA 4.0

The descent

The entrance, at 132 m.

The real relief above Bernifal cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.

depth not publishedEntrance248 m1.0 kmvertical × 14.0depth not publishedEntrance248 m1.0 kmvertical × 30.4

The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.

132m

Entrance altitude

from the 30 m relief model

13°C

Inside, all year

the yearly average outside, at the entrance

113m

Rock above

the highest point within 1.5 km

Inside and outside

13 °C inside, all year.

Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 13 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from July to August.

outside, at the entrance (132 m)inside
  1. 8°1°Jan
  2. 10°1°Feb
  3. 14°3°Mar
  4. 17°6°Apr
  5. 21°10°May
  6. 25°14°Jun
  7. 28°16°Jul
  8. 28°16°Aug
  9. 25°12°Sep
  10. 19°9°Oct
  11. 13°4°Nov
  12. 9°1°Dec
Inside: 13 °C all yearEscape the heat: Jul–Aug

Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.

Cave with prehistoric art

Bernifal cave is a cave with prehistoric art in France. The entrance is at 132 m. It is closed to the public to protect it.

Getting there.

Plan the visit

Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.

Car hire at BVE airport (Brive)Discover CarsSee prices 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above.

The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.

The ground above Bernifal cave (Sentinel-2) N 1.5 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around the entrance.

  • 7other cave entrances within 3 kmAbri du Cap Blanc, Grotte des Combarelles I, Grotte du château de Commarque and 4 more
  • 2springs within 2 kmCaptage de Saint-Raphaël
  • 4marked hiking routes within 3 kmDe la Manche aux Pyrénées 17, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac - Cahors, De la Manche aux Pyrénées 16, Champcevinel - Les Eyzies-de-Taillac and 2 more
  • 3car parks within 2 km
  • 28campsites within 8 kmCamping Le Vézère Périgord, Le Val de la Marquise, Camping Toohapi Le Mas and 25 more
  • 35hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmLes Hauts de Marquay, B&B Ferme de Tayac, La Ferme du Glandier and 32 more
  • 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • sinkholes within 3 km
  • caving clubs and spots within 15 km
  • viewpoints within 3 km
  • climbing crags within 3 km
  • named waterfalls within 4 km
  • information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
  • bus stops within 2 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Towns nearby

  • Saint-Cyprien7.2 km in a straight line
  • Le Bugue11 km in a straight line
  • Sarlat-la-Canéda13 km in a straight line
  • Le Buisson-de-Cadouin15 km in a straight line
  • Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac15 km in a straight line
  • Montignac17 km in a straight line
  • Belvès18 km in a straight line
  • Cénac18 km in a straight line

Month by month

The weather outside, at the entrance.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon8101417212528282519139
Afternoon8101417212528282519139
Night11361014161612941
Rain (mm)735168768267525652667471
Rainy days12101112131191010121313
Sun hours/day2.54.15.36.47.08.78.98.17.24.93.12.6
Snow on the ground (cm)652000000024
AfternoonAfternoonNightRain (mm)Sun hours/day
Jan881732.5
Feb10101514.1
Mar14143685.3
Apr17176766.4
May212110827.0
Jun252514678.7
Jul282816528.9
Aug282816568.1
Sep252512527.2
Oct19199664.9
Nov13134743.1
Dec991712.6

Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (132 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.

Photographs

Inside and around.

Burins and blades - Bernifal - Meyrals - MNP
Sémhur · CC BY-SA 4.0
Grotte de Bernifal - Entrée - Meyrals - 20090924
Sémhur · CC BY-SA 4.0
Grotte de Bernifal 1
Thilo Parg · CC BY-SA 4.0

Recent years

Wet years, dry years.

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202061%94%98%70%80%121%11%109%117%191%32%199%
2021106%127%33%36%118%195%108%43%185%60%57%144%
202240%60%68%79%30%170%11%60%93%39%101%75%
202375%29%102%79%69%143%57%86%71%148%193%164%
202467%185%184%90%175%121%70%27%228%155%57%68%
202584%32%36%59%23%73%18%38%56%49%50%33%

130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month

Caves nearby.

Bernifal cave

France

  • —Depth
  • —Galleries
  • 132 mEntrance altitude
  • 13 °CInside, all year

Lascaux

France · 16 km

  • —Depth
  • —Galleries
  • 197 mEntrance altitude
  • 12 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Font-de-Gaume cave

France · 3 km

  • —Depth
  • —Galleries
  • 91 mEntrance altitude
  • 13 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Les Combarelles

France · 2 km

  • —Depth
  • —Galleries
  • 106 mEntrance altitude
  • 13 °CInside, all year

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name, type, published depth and length, visitorsWikidata (Q549339) · CC0
The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

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