Is This Shell Grotto The Most Bizarre Place In Britain?

    So many questions, literally no answers.

    Chelsey Pippin
    by Chelsey Pippin

    BuzzFeed Staff, UK

    If you're ever in Margate, you MUST take a visit to this bizarre, underground chamber:

    Flickr: kotomi-jewelry / Creative Commons

    The grotto was discovered around 200 years ago.

    Flickr: krondol / Creative Commons

    According to urban legend, James Newlove and his son Joshua were digging a duck pond in Margate, Kent, when they noticed a strange hole in the ground. So James just sent his kid on down there to check it out, since safety first is obviously more of a 20th century value.

    This is what they found:

    Flickr: kotomi-jewelry / Creative Commons

    A PAINSTAKINGLY detailed...

    Flickr: bensutherland / Creative Commons
    Flickr: g_travels / Creative Commons

    creepy AF...

    Flickr: barneymoss / Creative Commons

    underground shell grotto.

    Flickr: mrlerone / Creative Commons
    Flickr: 29271559@N02 / Creative Commons

    And nobody knows how it got there.

    Flickr: adrian_wallett / Creative Commons

    In fact, nobody even knows if Joshua actually found it.

    Flickr: bensutherland / Creative Commons
    Flickr: bensutherland / Creative Commons

    The place is cloaked in gossip and mystery.

    Flickr: barneymoss / Creative Commons

    Could it have been a smuggler's cave?

    Flickr: barneymoss / Creative Commons

    A pagan ritual site?

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    The home of a doomsday cult?

    Flickr: felibrilu / Creative Commons

    Your guess is as good as anyone else's.

    Flickr: aphexlee / Creative Commons

    What we do know is that there are 4.6 million shells on the premises.

    Flickr: krondol / Creative Commons

    And that most of them came from Britain.

    Flickr: bensutherland
    Flickr: bensutherland / Creative Commons

    But some of them came from the Caribbean.

    Flickr: kotomi-jewelry Creative Commons

    How did they get there?!

    Flickr: bensutherland / Creative Commons
    Flickr: barneymoss / Creative Commons

    Why did they get there?!

    Flickr: kotomi-jewelry / Creative Commons

    Seriously, WTF?!

    Flickr: martinhearn / Creative Commons