Irpfelhöhle

The Irpfelhöhle is a 54-metre-long karst cave on the southern slope of the Irpfelberg, whose entrance is formed by a free-standing rock arch.

Giengen an der Brenz

The Irpfelhöhle is a 54-metre-long karst cave on the southern slope of the Irpfelberg, whose entrance is formed by a free-standing rock arch.

Characteristics

• Type: Cave
• Municipality: Giengen an der Brenz
• Record updated: November 13, 2026

Caves are protected biotopes (§30 BNatSchG). Caves used by bats as winter quarters must not be entered from 1 October to 31 March (§39(6) BNatSchG), except show caves and their developed parts.

Location

The Irpfelhöhle is located in Baden-Württemberg on the Swabian Alb, on the left edge of the Brenz valley. It leads into the southern slope of the Irpfelberg, which consists of white Jurassic rock and rises about 1.7 kilometres west-northwest of Giengen an der Brenz. The cave entrance at 480 metres above sea level is located about 15 metres above the valley floor.

Map

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

1. Irpfelhöhle

   48.627267, 10.223013
   UTM 32U (ETRS89) 590119 5386744
   Open in map Open in Google Maps

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Photos

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© Thilo Parg · CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Wikimedia Commons · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irpfelhoehle_2017-06-17_2.jpg

© Thilo Parg · CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Wikimedia Commons · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irpfelhoehle_2017-06-17_1.jpg

© Thilo Parg · CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Wikimedia Commons · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irpfelhoehle_2017-06-17_3.jpg

Image 1 of 3

Description

Morphology

The Irpfelhöhle has a length of 54 metres. A special feature of this cave is a free-standing rock arch at the entrance. This arch is the last remnant of a cave chamber that fell victim to natural slope erosion.

Other details

The Irpfelhöhle is a natural monument and a protected geotope.

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Source: Geotopkataster Baden-Württemberg (Regierungspräsidium Freiburg – LGRB) (services.lgrb-bw.de), modified. Data licence Germany – attribution – version 2.0 (dl-de/by-2-0), https://www.govdata.de/dl-de/by-2-0 Datenquelle: Regierungspräsidium Freiburg - LGRB, www.lgrb-bw.de · data as of 2026 · Source: Wikidata – cave items (Germany) (www.wikidata.org), modified. CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Wikidata (CC0 1.0) · data as of 2026 · Source: German Wikipedia – article leads (cave descriptions) (de.wikipedia.org), modified. CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Wikipedia contributors (de.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0 · Text by Wikipedia contributors (Irpfelhöhle) · adapted by Espeleoworld (normalized, translated); the adaptation is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · description · obtained 2026-11-13 · https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irpfelh%C3%B6hle · data as of 2026