Driny Cave

It is the only show cave in the Western Slovakia. It is located in the Smolenice Karst in the Lesser Carpathians Mountains, south-westerly from Smolenice, in the Trnava district and near the recreation resort Jahodník. The cave lies in the territory of the Malé Karpaty Protected Landscape Area. The entrance is situated on the western slope of the Driny Hill, which protrudes from the south-western hillside of Cejtach and lies 399 m above sea level.

It is formed in brown-grey Lower Cretaceous chert limestones of the Vysocký Nappe by corrosion of atmospheric waters penetrating along tectonic faults. The cave reaches the length of 680 m and vertical span of 40 m. It consists of narrow fissure passages, from one to three meters wide (Collaborators’ Passage, Beňovský‘s Passage, Passage of Hopes) and not big hall spaces (Slovak Speleological Society Hall), formed mostly on intersection of tectonic faults. The discovery chimney, which descends to 36 m’s depth from the upper opening to the intersection of the Entrance Passage (Vstupná chodba) with the Collaborators’ Passage, has a character of doline chimney.

A rich sinter fill decorates fissure underground spaces. Flowstone draperies with indented facing are typical for this cave. Flowstone waterfalls and flowstone structures, pagoda-like stalagmites and various forms of stalactites occur her. Also small flowstone pools, supplied with water by percolating rainfall water, can be found here.

Air temperature in the rear parts of the Driny Cave ranges between 7.1 and 7.8 °C, relative humidity between 92 and 97 %. Influences of outside climate show themselves under the Discovery Chimney, which communicates with the surface, and in the Entrance Passage. Air temperature in these spaces reaches from 5.6 to 8.7 °C

The cave is an important bať hibernation place in the western Slovakia. There are 11 species in winter, with the most abundant is the Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros). Regularly but in smaller numbers also the Greater Mouse-Eared Bat (Myotis myotis) and the Greater Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) are wintering here. From among the invertebrates, there is troglobitic springtail Pseudosinella paclti, eutroglophilic multipede Trachysphaera costata and interesting troglophilic multipede from Hungarosoma sp. genus, in Slovakia known only from this locality. There are stabile populations of eutroglophilic oribatid mites Gemmazetes cavatica and Damaeus lengersdorfi belonging to the Acarina taxon of the Arachnid class.

Show caves – Driny Cave