AN INCREDIBLE car graveyard hidden in a 65ft-deep cave has been destroyed by Instagram influencers.
The abandoned Welsh mineshaft – known as the “Cavern of Lost Souls”– is full of ditched motors left for decades.
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Located in the Ceredigion/Gwynedd area of west Wales, near a village called Corris Uchaf, this disused mine has laid silent for decades.
Photos taken in 2019 show the diesel dump is a shrine to the lives of the average British family in the 1960s and 70s – with cars like Ford Cortinas in itc collection.
But now the mineshaft has been left “destroyed” after influencers began to dump rubbish and glow sticks while visiting.
Caver Anthony Taylor recently visited and was disgusted by what he found.
He claims inside has been vandalised with “awful” graffiti and a “sea” of rubbish has been left behind.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: “From about 30ft (9m) in, the spray painting starts, and it was awful.
“The graffiti gets worse in the main chamber towards the cars, he said, with more rubbish on the floor, including discarded glow sticks and human faeces.
“When you get to the end, it was just a sea of boats, inflatable dinghies everywhere.
“It’s just disgusting, really sad and disheartening. The whole reason people want to visit a place like this is because they’ve seen it on the internet and think, ‘That’s an amazing place to go and see’, so why would you trash it?”
In order to access the cave, you are required to grapple down a 90-degree cliff, where old paths have eroded away and slippery slopes await.
Many visitors use inflatable dinghies to sail through the water below.
Mr Taylor continued: “The people that go to these places, influencers they call themselves… they go because they’ve got inherent value to them. Why destroy it for everyone else?
“If these things keep happening, it’s going to be lost to everyone forever.”
In 2019, nature photographer Gareth Owen captured some stunning shots of the “Cavern of Lost Souls” after deciding to explore the disused mine.
Gareth, from Llanberis in North Wales, said: “Once your eyes adjust to the sudden beam of light you realise the sheer scale of the place. There are hundreds of cars on top of each other.
“They are mostly unrecognisable by now but then front and center of the pile is a Ford Cortina – it was the only real colour on the pile.
“I guess being so used to photographing the natural landscapes and their beauty, photographing this spot was bittersweet for me.”
Amongst the tip, there is even an iconic blue Ford Cortina – the United Kingdom’s best-selling car of the 1970s.
If you look hard enough, then you will also see what appears to be the decaying shell of a VW Beetle or perhaps a Morris Minor beneath the surface of the water.
There even appear to be parts of an old Jaguar XK12 and an old Jenson Interceptor lying around.
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