VISITORS will soon be seeing Poole’s Cavern in a completely different light – thanks to a £60,000 upgrade.

Up to 300 new LED lights will make the most of the cavern’s natural assets and provide an atmospheric backdrop for theatre and music events. The lighting will be the most advanced of its kind in the UK.

Set to be in place by the spring, the system will replace lighting installed when the cavern was bought by Buxton Civic Association in 1976. This is not only expensive to run, but is also affecting the natural underground environment of the popular tourist attraction.

“It was a state-of-the-art system when it was put in,” says Poole’s Cavern manager Alan Walker. “But over the years, the heat from the bulbs has encouraged the growth of green plant life – and it’s started to encroach on some of the formations.”

The team started to research alternative lighting several years ago and some LED fittings were installed in the cavern entrance. The invading moss, lichen and green growth started to die off.

Now work has started on the installation of LED lighting along 1,000 feet of underground tunnels, cutting electricity consumption by 50% as well as reducing plant growth. And Alan Walker can’t wait for the results.

“We will be able to bring out the natural hues and tones of the formations in a way that will never have been achieved in any cave before,” he says. “The lights will also interact with visitors, brightening as they approach and dimming after they have passed.”

The LED system will provide a flexible backdrop for theatrical performances, with colours programmed on a laptop computer.

And in the Roman chamber, where archaeologists have found over 4,000 items from the Bronze Age through to Roman times, the lighting will recreate the effect of fire flickering on the walls.

The scheme has been made possible thanks to grants from the Lafarge Aggregates Landfill Community Fund and the Derbyshire Aggregates Levy Grant Scheme n

The Poole’s Cavern café, a free wi-fi zone for visitors, has introduced a winter menu of home-made soups, snacks and daily specials.

This article has been supplied courtesy of Pure Magazine. © Pure Buxton 2010