United Kingdom Show cave
St. Michael's Cave
17 °C inside, all year.
Joonas Lyytinen · CC BY 2.5
The descent
The entrance, at 233 m.
The real relief above St. Michael's Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
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.
233m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
17°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
132m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
17 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 17 °C here, in January and in August. In August the afternoon reaches 26 °C at the entrance, 9 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 14°11°Jan
- 14°10°Feb
- 16°11°Mar
- 17°13°Apr
- 19°15°May
- 22°17°Jun
- 25°19°Jul
- 26°20°Aug
- 23°19°Sep
- 21°17°Oct
- 17°14°Nov
- 15°12°Dec
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 in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar
St. Michael's Cave is a show cave in United Kingdom. The entrance is at 233 m. It has stalactites and stalagmites. It is open to visitors.
Getting there.
- Show cave: open to visitorsUsually with a guided tour; check times and tickets on the official site.
- Town Areanearest town · 0.5 km in a straight line
- Parking 290 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.2 km from the entrance
- Gibraltar Airport (GIB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 3 km in a straight lineCar hire at TTU airport (Tétouan)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
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.
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.
- 28other cave entrances within 3 kmSt Michael's Cave, Gorham's Cave, Goat's Hair Twin Caves and 25 more
- 33viewpoints within 3 kmRosia Mole, Queen's Balcony, Douglas Lookout and 30 more
- 1marked hiking routes within 3 kmMediterranean Steps
- 1climbing crags within 3 km
- 1named waterfalls within 4 kmEuropa Waterfall
- 165car parks within 2 km
- 21information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 72bus stops within 2 km
- 3campsites within 8 kmCamping Sureuropa, Area de Autocaravanas Alcaidesa Marina
- 204hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmThe Bristol Hotel, Cannon Hotel, Emile Hostel and 201 more
- 76restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 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
- Town Area0.5 km in a straight line
- Upper Town1.2 km in a straight line
- South District1.3 km in a straight line
- Sandpits1.8 km in a straight line
- Gibraltar2.2 km in a straight line
- Reclamation Areas2.2 km in a straight line
- La Línea de la Concepción4.7 km in a straight line
- Algeciras9.4 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around St. Michael's Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas5 mountains within 10 km
Coastya10 beaches within 3 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 14 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 26 | 23 | 21 | 17 | 15 |
| Afternoon | 14 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 22 | 25 | 26 | 23 | 21 | 17 | 15 |
| Night | 11 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 14 | 12 |
| Rain (mm) | 74 | 74 | 80 | 57 | 26 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 26 | 76 | 106 | 94 |
| Rainy days | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| Sun hours/day | 5.8 | 6.4 | 7.2 | 8.5 | 10.4 | 12.3 | 12.9 | 11.5 | 9.0 | 7.2 | 6.0 | 5.4 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 14 | 14 | 11 | 74 | 5.8 |
| Feb | 14 | 14 | 10 | 74 | 6.4 |
| Mar | 16 | 16 | 11 | 80 | 7.2 |
| Apr | 17 | 17 | 13 | 57 | 8.5 |
| May | 19 | 19 | 15 | 26 | 10.4 |
| Jun | 22 | 22 | 17 | 4 | 12.3 |
| Jul | 25 | 25 | 19 | 1 | 12.9 |
| Aug | 26 | 26 | 20 | 3 | 11.5 |
| Sep | 23 | 23 | 19 | 26 | 9.0 |
| Oct | 21 | 21 | 17 | 76 | 7.2 |
| Nov | 17 | 17 | 14 | 106 | 6.0 |
| Dec | 15 | 15 | 12 | 94 | 5.4 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (233 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
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.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 103% | 4% | 152% | 92% | 224% | — | — | — | 20% | 49% | 81% | 60% |
| 2021 | 223% | 97% | 98% | 53% | 33% | — | — | — | 73% | 8% | 42% | 84% |
| 2022 | 14% | 11% | 245% | 117% | 36% | — | — | — | 34% | 9% | 60% | 226% |
| 2023 | 69% | 57% | 23% | 1% | 256% | — | — | — | 69% | 111% | 10% | 36% |
| 2024 | 68% | 100% | 283% | 42% | 26% | — | — | — | 33% | 235% | 38% | 27% |
| 2025 | 73% | 78% | 288% | 87% | 50% | — | — | — | 23% | 44% | 111% | 218% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
St. Michael's Cave
United Kingdom
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 233 mEntrance altitude
- 17 °CInside, all year
Gorham's Cave
United Kingdom · 1 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 81 mEntrance altitude
- 18 °CInside, all year
Forbes' Quarry
United Kingdom · 2 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 57 mEntrance altitude
- 18 °CInside, all year
Ibex Cave
United Kingdom · 1 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 165 mEntrance altitude
- 17 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q583655) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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