Staring into the dark hole that slopes up to where we can’t see anything anymore. One short look of understanding is enough to know we both hesitate to climb up into the dark. We’re all alone, which was an asset, to begin with, but somehow became kind of a burden right now.
Nobody knows we’re out here.
If we disappear between the spiky teeth of an angry bear right now, nobody will know where to look for us first.
We recently heard they released 20 wild bears into these mountains. Which bear wouldn’t appreciate a nice cave high up in the mountains?
Suba Luyk Stone Age cave is located in the Bukk mountains of Eastern Hungary. It is also the location where the remains of a young Neanderthal woman and her 3-year-old son were found.
They even found mammoth bones near this archeological site.
Could this be any closer to a stone age sage as if it would have been told by Jean Auel or William Sarabande?
We need to put our fear aside and dive into this mystical Stone Age Cave straight away!
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Suba Lyuk – How to get there
Suba Lyuk Stone Age Cave is one of the most interesting places to visit in Hungary. The best way to visit Suba Lyuk is by car. You might be able to get there by public transportation and there is a bus stop nearby. But I wouldn’t recommend doing so if you’re not familiar with the Hungarian language.
The Suba Lyuk site is located 2,4 km from the small town Cserepfalu, not too far from Bogacs and Eger. You can visit the Stone Age Cave as a day trip from Eger. There is also a restaurant on site.
Navigate to the intersection of Kossuth Ut and Horvölgye erdészház in 3413 Cserepfalu
The museum and restaurant offer a spacious parking which is free of charge.
Suba Lyuk – Distance from Eger 25 km
Distance to Suba Lyuk from Debrecen 130 km
Suba Lyuk – Distance from Budapest 152 km
Map
How to get to the cave – Hike to Suba Lyuk
After parking your car, start following the arrows that mention the Suba Lyuk Cave.
The walk is 750 meters over a nice forest path. Depending on the weather, there might be some puddles on the path. But previous visitors already made sideways to avoid these.
After this short walk that should only take about 10 minutes, you see a sign with information before starting the climb up to the cave.
Some parts of the trail are steep and rocky. Even though the weather was sunny and dry, the rocks were a little slippery. So if you plan on visiting when it’s raining: take good shoes with you.
Railings are in place to help you during your climb and get past the rocky and steep parts. We climbed the steep parts in 15 to 20 minutes without rushing.
The Stone Age Cave is not wheelchair accessible, but it is accessible for families with kids, as long as they’re old and agile enough to do some climbing.
Suba Lyuk cave Hungary – What to expect
Suba Lyuk cave is a V-shaped cave that apparently goes straight up into the dark. The cave floor is steep and a little slippery.
After climbing up the first part, you already see daylight seep in from the other side.
But before you can enjoy the glorious mountain view on the other side, you pass through a small sheltered zone. After that, climb back up a rocky path to reach the ‘balcony’ with a view on the mountains ahead.
It’s not possible to exit the cave at the other end, so you have to return the way you came in.
Take your time to look around and notice more entries to cave parts that are higher up. I’m not sure if it’s possible to climb these, but I can imagine there is a lot more to this cave that can be accessed easily.
It also looked like a part of the Suba Lyuk cave is closed off by a recently built stone wall. So we can only suspect this is the part of the cave that collapsed thousands of years ago.
Suba Lyuk Cave – Suba Lyuk Barlang History
This V-shaped cave in the Bukk region in Hungary was discovered and excavated by archaeologists in the 30’s. The Suba Lyuk site displays what the region would have looked like in the Ice Age and the remains that have been found in Suba Lyuk date back tens of thousands of years.
Scientists believe that the Suba Lyuk cave has been inhabited by Neanderthaler in different eras and by different cave settlers. It was even inhabited in the 20th century by an outlaw named Lukacs Suba after whom the cave was named eventually.
Suba Lyuk Museum
Suba Lyuk museum is located next to the parking lot. You can choose whether to visit it before or after visiting the stone age cave. We decided to visit the museum after the cave visit since it only opens at 10 AM.
We wanted to visit the cave without other spectators, so we hiked up there pretty early.
Copies of the bones that archeologists found in the cave are now on display in the museum.
The actual bones remain in a sealed and airtight environment in order to keep them in good shape for as long as possible. They are only used when new archeological discoveries are made in order to compare and examine the remains.
To be exact, the remains consist of the mandible (lower jaw) and skull of a 3-year-old child and a part of the spine of a 25 to a 30-year-old woman who died inside of the Suba Lyuk cave.
Even though the museum is pretty small, it holds a lot of information. It’s actually perfect to set the mood and clear up some fog around discoveries in the cave and surrounding area.
We enjoyed our visit to the museum and the museum staff offered us an English transcript of the tableaus since everything was written in Hungarian.
The museum is opened every day except Monday.
- On weekdays the museum is open from 10h until 16h.
- On weekends it’s open from 10h until 16h30.
- Entrance fee for the Suba Lyuk museum is 500 Hungarian Forint
Suba Lyuk Neanderthal Cave Hungary – Is it worth it?
For us, our visit to this Neanderthal cave was worthy of our time and it was a cheap day trip.
Suba Lyuk cave is an interesting day trip for all kinds of travelers.
Whether you like hiking and spending time in nature, you’re a history lover or you enjoy imagining how people in the Ice Age lived and survived, the hike and visit to the cave are interesting in every way.
Knowing that many generations of Neanderthal and human ancestors have thrived and survived in this exact location, just adds extra magic to the cave and that alone was enough for me to make this trip worthwhile.
Note: I would not visit the cave if it wasn’t on a day trip’s reach. For a half day out it is nice enough but to ride a couple of hours to explore it is not worth it.
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