Hannu · Public domain
The descent
The entrance, at 48 m.
The real relief above Ülgase caves, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
48m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
6°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
Inside and outside
6 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 6 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 21 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- -2°-6°Jan
- -3°-7°Feb
- 0°-4°Mar
- 6°1°Apr
- 13°6°May
- 17°11°Jun
- 21°15°Jul
- 20°15°Aug
- 16°11°Sep
- 9°5°Oct
- 4°1°Nov
- 0°-3°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Caves in Estonia
Ülgase caves is a cave system in Estonia. The entrance is at 48 m. It has several entrances and long galleries. It lies within Ülgase Nature Reserve.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Maardunearest town · 6.4 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 1.2 km from the entrance
- Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 17 km in a straight lineCar hire at TLL airport (Tallinn)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 3other cave entrances within 3 kmÜlgase fosforiidikaevandus
- 2viewpoints within 3 km
- 2marked hiking routes within 3 kmE11 section 48: Jõelähtme - Muuga, Kultuurilooline palverännutee Piritalt Vana-Vastseliina
- 2car parks within 2 km
- 3information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 5bus stops within 2 km
- 7hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmRuhe Rannamaja, Veer, Euro Hostel and 4 more
- 2restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- campsites within 8 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Maardu6.4 km in a straight line
- Loo10 km in a straight line
- Randvere10 km in a straight line
- Kose12 km in a straight line
- Pärnamäe13 km in a straight line
- Viimsi14 km in a straight line
- Pirita14 km in a straight line
- Lasnamäe14 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Ülgase caves.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | -2 | -3 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| Afternoon | -2 | -3 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 17 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
| Night | -6 | -7 | -4 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 15 | 15 | 11 | 5 | 1 | -3 |
| Rain (mm) | 52 | 42 | 40 | 40 | 48 | 72 | 65 | 72 | 57 | 71 | 68 | 57 |
| Rainy days | 13 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 15 |
| Sun hours/day | 0.1 | 1.5 | 4.9 | 7.2 | 9.6 | 9.1 | 8.9 | 7.3 | 4.5 | 1.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 21 | 24 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 17 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -2 | -2 | -6 | 52 | 0.1 |
| Feb | -3 | -3 | -7 | 42 | 1.5 |
| Mar | 0 | 0 | -4 | 40 | 4.9 |
| Apr | 6 | 6 | 1 | 40 | 7.2 |
| May | 13 | 13 | 6 | 48 | 9.6 |
| Jun | 17 | 17 | 11 | 72 | 9.1 |
| Jul | 21 | 21 | 15 | 65 | 8.9 |
| Aug | 20 | 20 | 15 | 72 | 7.3 |
| Sep | 16 | 16 | 11 | 57 | 4.5 |
| Oct | 9 | 9 | 5 | 71 | 1.9 |
| Nov | 4 | 4 | 1 | 68 | 0.0 |
| Dec | 0 | 0 | -3 | 57 | 0.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (48 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 95% | 202% | 134% | 110% | 65% | 126% | 164% | 97% | 89% | 107% | 100% | 86% |
| 2021 | 129% | 78% | 118% | 78% | 180% | 38% | 48% | 188% | 44% | 117% | 97% | 84% |
| 2022 | 139% | 160% | 52% | 89% | 90% | 51% | 61% | 48% | 75% | 53% | 65% | 132% |
| 2023 | 174% | 83% | 192% | 60% | 53% | 41% | 84% | 161% | 166% | 146% | 107% | 93% |
| 2024 | 78% | 123% | 99% | 240% | 19% | 62% | 172% | 113% | 113% | 72% | 122% | 135% |
| 2025 | 195% | 57% | 80% | 152% | 133% | 154% | 127% | 113% | 112% | 88% | 102% | 117% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q18626951) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.






