page_title: Hobby tunneling
section_title: John Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland
hierarchical_section_title: Hobby tunneling / John Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland
context_page_description: Hobby tunneling is tunnel construction as a diversion. Usually, hobby tunnelers dig their tunnels by hand, using little equipment, and some can spend years or even decades to achieve any degree of completion. In some cases tunnels have been dug secretly, and only discovered by chance.
context_section_description: The 5th Duke of Portland is known to have been a hobby tunneler, although he did no digging himself but rather had workmen build his tunnels. An extensive network of underground spaces was constructed at his Welbeck Abbey estate  in the 19th century, with a total length of around 24 kilometres (15 mi). It included hallways, a ballroom, a billiards room, a library and a 900 metres (3,000 ft) tunnel from the mansion to the riding house, wide enough for several people to walk in side by side. Some of the spaces were lit by lightwells and at night by gas lighting. Most of the spaces that are known as 'underground' are actually 'below ground', constructed in a cut-and-cover technique.
  Few of the tunnels and rooms were ever used for their intended purpose, however. Towards the end of his life, the Duke lived as a recluse and very few people actually got to see him. Spaces that were intended for social gatherings, like the ballroom, were never used. But the Duke did frequently use the tunnels that allowed him to move about his property mostly unseen.
caption: Bentinck's below ground ballroom, later picture gallery[24]
exif: {}