Man revives family-owned prehistoric caves as tourist attraction

By Elizabeth Hunter

A young man who grew up in a network of prehistoric caves owned by his parents is now running them as a tourist attraction.

Oliver Bowerman, 26, spent his childhood playing in a series of underground caves known as the Stump Cross Caverns in the Yorkshire Dales.

The vast caves featuring stunning stalagmites and stalactites became his own personal playground.

His parents had bought them as a business opportunity when he was aged just five after seeing a newspaper advert.

Now university graduate Oliver has taken over the running the caves which were first discovered in 1860.

"I remember it vividly – I was five years old when they decided to buy the caverns," said Oliver.

"They actually had no tourism experience at all – my mom was a pediatric nurse and my dad was a brewer.

"We lived in Northumberland, but they had family back in Yorkshire and wanted to have a business and move back, and get out of the corporate world.

"They saw the advert in the newspaper – “cave for sale for the first time in generations” – and my dad said as a joke almost, that he wanted to go and buy it.

"My mom said, “go on then,” and they actually went and bought it.

"I remember being told we were moving to a cave, and at that age, I had no concept of what a cave was other than the book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

"I remember the first day I came to visit it was after we bought it.

"We went down to the caves, and I saw a big picture of a wolverine at the entrance – and within five minutes, I thought the wolverine was going to eat us and had to go back up."

The family lived on-site, with Oliver, his older brother and his younger sister using the caves throughout their childhood as their own personal playground.

"You almost take it for granted when it’s on your doorstep, but it’s amazing to have this strange garden, right beneath your feet," said Oliver.

"We’ve always lived on-site – it’s been a really beautiful place to grow up, and it’s pretty unique."

But in 2019, visitor numbers began to decline, with mom Lisa fearing she may have to sell.

Luckily, middle child and recent graduate Oliver stepped in, officially becoming the business director in 2022, in the hopes of keeping the company in the family and allowing his mom to retire.

"The business was going through a bit of a rough patch," said Oliver.

"Our visiting numbers had dropped significantly since the early 2000s – we were down to around 20,000 visitors per year, which is difficult to sustain.

"My mom and her partner Nick were working every hour of the day, and doing everything because they couldn’t afford to have many staff.

"There was a good chance they were going to put it on the market.

"I officially took over this year, but I’ve been involved with the business since I was much younger.

"I was 13 when I could officially start working, from playing the easter bunny to washing pots – doing a lot of those jobs to start with.

"As soon as I finished university, I wanted to come back and help the family and take the business forward.

"The main motivation was because I knew the potential was there for the business, so I thought that if I could come and help with the marketing and the operations, I could help to give my mom a good retirement."

Oliver believes the coming years will be some of the most exciting yet - with a new cavern set to be excavated and opened within the next three years.

And now that Oliver has taken over the business and administration duties, Lisa, a former pediatric nurse, hopes to devote more time toward educating children about the cave system.

"We’ve opened up a new section of caves – work will begin on that in January," said Oliver.

"We believe it will take two to three years, but it will be the first cave in 25 years that we’ll have been able to open.

"Some of the formations in there are absolutely spectacular, so that will be really exciting.

"And mom loves the fact that I’ve come and taken it on.

"Mom can now take a step back and get more involved with the education side of things, which is what she loves doing.

"I saw the potential, I wanted to help my family – and I do love it, it’s a brilliant job."