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Waldschratschacht / Bertmannhöhle

Two Schachthöhlen (shaft caves) discovered in 2005 at dolines in the forest beside the L 754: the 25 m deep Waldschratschacht and the Bertmannshöhle with a steeply descending passage.

Büren

Two Schachthöhlen (shaft caves) discovered in 2005 at dolines in the forest beside the L 754: the 25 m deep Waldschratschacht and the Bertmannshöhle with a steeply descending passage.

Characteristics

  • Type: Pothole
  • Municipality: Büren
  • Record updated:

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

On both sides of the L 754 Büren-Wünnenberg, in the forest immediately beside the road, which here forms the municipal boundary, there are several dolines (cf. GK 25, Bl. 4417).

Map

Approximate position

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Waldschratschacht / Bertmannhöhle

    51.559136, 8.644503
Download all entrances as GPX

Description

Morphology

The Waldschratschacht lies about 15 m north of the road and is 25 m deep. The Bertmannshöhle lies immediately south of the road. In it, along a fissure zone running roughly N-S, a passage leads about 10 m steeply downward to the north and, behind a constriction (collapse), opens into a shaft that continues a few m upward and roughly 10 m into the depth. From this shaft, another passage leads in a southerly direction back beneath the entrance doline.

Progression

In April and September 2005, Prof. Feige, Münster, and cave researchers discovered two Schachthöhlen (shaft caves) here: the Waldschratschacht and the Bertmannshöhle. In a third doline, located somewhat farther south, the cave researchers, with the support of the district forester, attempted to expose the entrance of another suspected shaft.

Other details

The dolines are located in the distribution area of the fissured and karstified marly limestones of the Oerlinghausen Formation (Middle to Upper Turonian).

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Source: Geotopkataster Nordrhein-Westfalen (Geologischer Dienst NRW) (ogc-api.nrw.de), modified. Data licence Germany – attribution – version 2.0 (dl-de/by-2-0), https://www.govdata.de/dl-de/by-2-0 Geowissenschaftliche Daten: INSP-GeotopeinNRW @ Geologischer Dienst NRW · data as of 2026