Bat's Life

A growing breed of Briton is taking to troglodyte living – moving into Andalucía’s ancient cave houses.

Galera looks – at first glance – like any other pretty Andalucían village. Passing through the sleepy main square and on up the hill, the galleries of pristine cottages hove into view. If it weren’t for the more exotic foliage (and the lack of sea), you could be in a Cornish fishing village. But something doesn’t seem right. It takes a few seconds to register that all these ‘little boxes’ are just one room deep, and a couple more seconds to realise why: these are cave houses – hundreds of them.

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Spain Magazine

Spain's answer to Santa's grotto

They're chic, cheerful - and very cheap. No wonder Britons are flocking to the cave homes of Andalusia. Anthony Jeffries reports.

We've heard all the comments about Flintstones and dinosaurs and cavemen with clubs," says Iain Macdonald, sitting outside his home in the wilds of southern Spain. "But to be honest, if we weren't part of the 'community', I'd probably be making them myself."

This "community", which serves as the butt of so many jokes, is both old and young at the same time. Old, because we're talking about people who live in the earliest homes known to man. Young, because until a few years ago, this was a way of life which had all but disappeared.

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The Telegraph

The Magic of Living in the Earth

Most of us probably think of cave dwellers in terms of prehistoric times, with perhaps the exception of Native Americans in the Southwest and the hiding places of the people of modern-day Afghanistan.

But cave dwelling continues to this day. Here, Celeste Adams discusses today's little-known "troglodytes" (a fancy word for cave dwellers), and adds a historical discussion of Living in Caves).

Besides her research and an interview, Celeste visited a writer in Malibu who lives in a cave. And she herself dwelt for a time in a "cave-hotel"!

Spirit of Maat