By Ross Brewster

Last updated at 12:50, Thursday, 12 February 2009

The Lake District cave which was once the home of the legendary character nicknamed the Professor of Adventure has been closed due to a rock fall.

Millican Dalton

Now the National Trust is waiting for an inspection by engineering experts to decide how badly damaged Millican Dalton’s cave in Borrowdale is.

Countryside officer Penny Webb said: “One of our wardens discovered the rock fall last week. It’s not a particularly big one but we are advising people not to go into the cave.

“We have asked some specialist geological assessors to look into it.”

A notice has been posted outside the cave and notices are also being displayed in outdoor shops in Keswick, while outdoor centres in the area have also been notified.

Millican Dalton’s cave was the summer base of the man who was one of the best-known guides in the early part of the last century.

He became a familiar figure in Keswick between the wars.

Dalton, who was born in 1867 at Nenthead, went to the Friends’ School in Wigton before moving south to Epping. He abandoned an orthodox career in insurance and eventually settled in Borrowdale.

His homes ranged from the Holiday Fellowship guest house in Newlands – where he was secretary for a couple of seasons – to a tent at High Lodore and his more permanent base in the cave on Castle Crag.

The cave had two rooms with running water through a crack in the roof, bracken for bedding, and a supply of wood for a fire. Dalton was a vegetarian and teetotaller and did not ask for money for his guiding services, although clients usually gave a small donation towards his modest living needs.

He would sail into Keswick on a raft down Derwentwater to get provisions from the town. He was a left-wing pacifist who wrote letters to Churchill in an effort to stop World War Two. He died in 1947.

Carved at the entrance to his Borrowdale cave were the words “Don’t!! Waste Words. Jump to Conclusions.”

The National Trust said it does not know when the cave will be safe to visit again.

First published at 11:28, Thursday, 12 February 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk