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Modern Caveman – Man Builds A $230,000 House In 700-Year-Old Cave

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A former recruitment boss traded his corner office for a 700-year-old hole in a sandstone cliff — and turned it into a $230,000 home.

Angelo Mastropietro spent years running a corporate recruitment agency in Australia before a life-altering diagnosis sent him back to a cave he’d stumbled into on a bike ride more than a decade earlier. What started as shelter from a rainstorm became a nine-month, hands-on renovation that turned an abandoned dwelling in the Wyre Forest into a fully modern retreat, cut directly into 250-million-year-old rock.

• Mastropietro was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007 at age 29, which caused temporary paralysis and pushed him to walk away from his high-stress career in Australia.
• He bought the derelict cave house near Bewdley for £62,000 in 2010, then spent over £160,000 (roughly $230,000) transforming it starting in January 2015.
• The finished 700-square-foot dwelling, dubbed “The Rockhouse Retreat,” was featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs with Kevin McCloud in 2015 and now operates as an eco-holiday rental.

From Recruitment Boss to Cave Dweller

In 1999, Mastropietro took cover from a rainstorm during a bicycle trip and found himself inside a cave house carved into the sandstone cliffs of the Wyre Forest, near Bewdley in Worcestershire. The site had sheltered people for roughly 700 to 800 years before it was abandoned in 1962, and it stuck with him long after the rain stopped. He went on to build a career running a corporate recruitment agency in Australia, until a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 2007, at age 29, caused temporary paralysis and forced him to rethink everything about how he was living.

That health scare is what sent him looking for the cave again. In 2010, he spotted the derelict site advertised in a local property guide and bought it for £62,000, setting the stage for a project that wouldn’t actually begin for another five years.

Nine Months, Over 1,000 Hours, 80 Tons of Rock

Work started in January 2015, and Mastropietro did much of it himself. Over nine months he logged more than 1,000 hours of manual labor, hauling out an estimated 70 to 80 tons of rock rubble to hollow the space into a livable home. The total spend came in above £160,000 — close to $230,000 — a figure that covers everything from structural work to the bespoke fittings that now line the interior.

Over 1,000 hours of manual labor. An estimated 70 to 80 tons of rock cleared by hand. One man turning a cave abandoned since 1962 into a $230,000 home.

The renovation drew national attention when it was featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs with host Kevin McCloud in 2015, putting Mastropietro’s project in front of the same audience that has followed some of Britain’s most ambitious self-build homes.

Inside the Rockhouse Retreat

The finished space, named The Rockhouse Retreat, runs about 700 square feet and pairs the raw rock walls with modern conveniences: running water, underfloor heating, a walk-in rainforest shower, a fully fitted kitchen, Wi-Fi, and bespoke timber fittings throughout. Outside, an outdoor terrace with a fire pit takes advantage of the forest setting. It’s the kind of build that sits alongside other off-grid conversions readers have followed, including Australia’s underground homes and the wave of derelict-property rescues behind Italy’s $1 homes.

Rather than keep the cave as a private residence, Mastropietro has run it as a commercial eco-holiday rental, letting guests book stays in a space that combines Triassic-era sandstone with the comforts of a boutique hotel room.

A Cave With an 800-Year Head Start

What sets the Rockhouse Retreat apart from most self-build stories is the timeline behind the structure itself. The cliff dwelling had already served as human habitation for something like 700 to 800 years before it went quiet in 1962, which means Mastropietro wasn’t building a home from scratch so much as reactivating one — with a mortgage-sized renovation budget standing in for whatever tools the original occupants used.

Mastropietro still runs the property as a rental out of the Wyre Forest, meaning the same cave that once hid him from a rainstorm now hides paying guests from Wi-Fi-free weekends, underfloor heating and rainforest shower included.