[1] The caves have been known to local people for hundreds of years, and have been inhabited at various times during their history.

Some of them were inhabited when Irish antiquary Thomas Crofton Croker visited in the early 19th century: "...the road winds round a mass of steep limestone rock, in which are natural caverns, used as habitations by the peasantry.

One of these was the dwelling of the village smith, the light from whose forge threw a broad and vivid reflection across the road, that lay in the solemnity of deep shadow.

"[2]The caves are particularly notable for the large number of archaeological and palaeontological remains discovered within.

[4] The caves were closed to the public in the early 1990s, with steel doors put in place to prevent access.