Pod Lípou Cave

Pod Lípou Cave is a small, hidden karst cave in the southern part of the Moravian Karst (Moravský kras), tucked above the Hádek reservoir (Hádecká přehrada) east of the village of Ochoz u Brna in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Unlike the show caves that draw visitors elsewhere in the region, this is a site known almost exclusively to cavers and researchers — tight, hard to spot, and off-limits to casual visitors.

Where is Pod Lípou Cave?

The cave sits at roughly 382 meters above sea level, about 51 meters above the valley floor, above the Hádek reservoir in the valley of the Hádecká Říčka stream (Údolí Říčky), in the southern Moravian Karst — a limestone region north of Brno that holds close to 1,600 documented caves across some 94 km² and has been protected as a landscape area since 1956. The entrance is tucked under a rock overhang and barely visible from below, which makes it genuinely difficult to find even for people looking for it on purpose.

What does the inside look like?

Beyond the entrance, a narrow passage no more than a meter high runs roughly south. For about the first 4 meters the walls twist into tight meanders, after which the passage narrows further and the ceiling drops to just 75 centimeters. It opens briefly into a small chamber measuring around 1 by 2 meters and 1.3 meters high — the largest space in the whole cave. Past that chamber, the passage continues as an impassable, clay-floored crack where exploration simply stops. Moving through the cave means crawling and squeezing the entire way.

How did the cave form?

Pod Lípou Cave was carved by water forced under pressure through cracks in the limestone, most likely during and after one of the glacial periods. The shape of the entrance supports this: it's a smoothed, arch-like pressure channel rather than a passage cut by a free-flowing stream. There's also no trace of river sediment — no sand, no gravel — inside, meaning the water that shaped the cave carried only fine silt and clay rather than the coarser material a real underground river would leave behind. The cave is one piece of a larger, now largely inactive drainage system that once moved water through this part of the karst.

Is it part of a larger cave system?

Pod Lípou is one of a cluster of small caves sitting within about 10 meters of each other in elevation, which points to a shared, ancient erosion base level — a former groundwater table that these passages once drained toward. The cluster includes Hynštovo Funidlo, Nad Lipou, Archeologů, Májová, Křížová, Kůlnička, and Slezákova díra, plus the much larger and better-known Ochozská jeskyně (Ochoz Cave) and Pekárna Cave nearby. Ochozská jeskyně, roughly 3.5 km long, was open to guided tours between 1966 and 1975 before frequent flooding from the Hostěnice stream forced its closure; today it's opened only occasionally, for organized groups.

Has the cave been studied recently?

Yes. In May 2021, caver Kamil Pokorný surveyed the cave with a thermal imaging camera. The scan turned up no temperature anomalies or notable heat differences, and he didn't detect any airflow either, even though older accounts had described a noticeable draft in the same spot. That could mean the cave's narrow passages have become more clogged or collapsed over the decades since those earlier visits.

Can you visit Pod Lípou Cave?

No — it isn't a show cave. There's no marked trail leading to it and no entrance infrastructure, and getting inside its cramped passages requires real caving experience and equipment. Visitors to the area are better off hiking the valley of the Hádecká Říčka and the wider trails of the Moravian Karst, passing the entrances of the other caves in this cluster and the Hádek reservoir along the way.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is Pod Lípou Cave? Above the Hádek reservoir, east of Ochoz u Brna, in the southern Moravian Karst, at roughly 382 meters above sea level.

Can Pod Lípou Cave be visited? No — there's no marked trail or infrastructure, and the tight passages require caving experience.

How big is the cave? Very small: a few meters of narrow passage lead to a chamber about 1 by 2 meters and 1.3 meters high, beyond which the cave ends.

What other caves are nearby? It belongs to a cluster of caves at similar elevation, including Hynštovo Funidlo, Nad Lipou, Archeologů, and the much larger Ochozská jeskyně.