A RARE chance to own the cave of a famous prophetess has come up, priced at £1.8m.

The landmark Mother Shipton’s Cave, in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, is on the market for only the fourth time in its 400-year history.

The soothsayer’s birthplace also comes with a petrifying well which turns items to stone.

The cave and linked attractions on a 12-acre estate draw in more than 65,000 visitors a year.

It has now been put up for sale by its owners Adrian and Liz Sawyers.

The pair plan to take early retirement and are looking for someone to buy the business.

Mr Sawyers said: “Although we have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of running this unique business for nine seasons, we are ready for the next phase of our lives.

“The new owners will get much more than a very successful business – they will own a famous piece of history and almost a mile of stunning scenery and riverside.

This place is truly special.”

Mother Shipton was born in 1488 in the cave by the River Nidd and lived during the reigns of King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I.

She was thought by some to be the Devil’s child but her reputation as a prophetess spread far and wide.

The Mother Shipton’s Estate, which runs the visitor attraction, was once partowned by the celebrity magician Paul Daniels.

The sale includes a historic riverside and woodland walk through part of the former Ancient Forest of Knaresborough.

The buyer will also get a three-bedroomed gate house and Prophecy Lodge, which is on the National Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

Richard Baldwin, of Humberts Leisure, which is handling the sale, said: “We have a long association with Mother Shipton’s Cave and it represents a unique opportunity to purchase a well-established successful business with a great future ahead of it.”

Birth heralded by thunder

MOTHER Shipton was born in 1488 as an illegitimate child named Ursula Sontheil, in a cave by the River Nidd, at Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.

Witnesses to her birth claim to have smelt sulphur and heard a great crack of thunder, with some thinking she was the Devil’s child.

She married carpenter Toby Shipton in 1512 when she was 24, and began to develop her prophecies shortly after.

Her reputation as a soothsayer soon spread and she is said to have voiced a prophecy about the then king Henry VIII.

Mother Shipton died in 1561, and some say she predicted her own death.

It is thought she was buried in unconsecrated ground on the outskirts of York.

Mother Shipton’s prophecies have been interpreted to fit in with historical events, such as the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the beheading of King Charles I in 1649.