Painshill Park is a garden designed by an Irish aristocrat named Charles Hamilton in 1738 in Surrey, the UK. Inspired by the art in Europe, Hamilton wanted his piece of land filled with eccentric structures, Renaissance architecture, and a stunning crystal grotto.
The Crystal Grotto is actually a brick-built structure with man-made stalactites hanging from its walls.
A channel of water divides the grotto, and an arched bridge joins the two halves. Somewhere among the rocks exists the entrance to the crystal grotto. The structure is actually brick-built and faced externally with oolitic limestone (tiny spheres of rock stuck together by lime mud). The walls of the grotto are covered with mainly gypsum with calcite, quartz, fluorite, and some other minerals. The man-made stalactites hanging from the ceiling create a mystical cave atmosphere when they glisten with daylight.
