One of the more interesting aspects of our vacation in Gran Canaria was the house we stayed in. It was a cave house. It turns out that cave houses are widespread in Gran Canaria and in some other parts of Spain as well. We saw many caves while we were walking and driving around. A few were prehistorical caves dug by the Guanche, the stone age people living on the islands before the Spanish arrived, but most were more recent. Some were being lived in, others were used for storage, and quite a number had been abandoned.

“Everybody knows” cave men lived in caves, but I’ve always wondered how they could find enough suitable caves. It turns out they didn’t – they made their own. That wouldn’t work in the hard rocks of Scandinavia, but in the light porous volcanic rock of Gran Canaria it’s quite doable, probably even with prehistoric tools.

The cave house didn’t feel much different from a normal house, really. There were no windows except in the front of the house, of course, so the night could get very dark. During daytime, the front garden compensated for the lack of windows – we had breakfast outside every morning. All the walls and floors were made of stone, which kept the temperature very even throughout the day and night. But there was no feeling of being in a dark dank cave – it was quite cosy.

We were told that the interiors of most cave houses are whitewashed to look like ordinary houses, but in ours the walls were raw rock, which I thought looked very nice, and brought out the cave-ness of the house.

The builders had also used the original rock for furniture and interior features. You want side tables? Right, let’s carve out two side tables. You need somewhere to put a fire extinguisher? OK, let’s carve a fire-extinguisher-shaped niche here. Shelves in the bathroom? Can do. But once the side tables and niches and shelves are in place, that’s where they’re going to stay!

Cave wall	Niche for fire extinguisher
Side table	Bathroom shelves

Want to build your own cave house?