The ‘hobby tunneling’ phenomenon, explained

In 2024, Kala, TikTok’s “Tunnel Girl,” made headlines when city officials stopped her DIY excavation project beneath her Virginia home. Kala, however, is not the only person to dig tunnels as a pastime. So-called “hobby tunneling” is popular enough to warrant a page on Wikipedia.

Hobby tunneling is just as it sounds: Digging a tunnel or system of tunnels underground for personal enjoyment. Some consider their tunnels artistic expression. Others undertake hobby tunneling to build bunkers for an expected apocalypse. Kala, the TikTok “Tunnel Girl,” calls hers a “storm shelter.”

The tunnel-digging task gets done many ways, sometimes with few tools, but in other cases, with shovels or more complicated excavation equipment. There may also be lighting installed as work progresses. Hobby tunnels vary in size and shape, depending on their purpose.

Why do people dig digging?

When asked why they love to dig, hobby tunneling enthusiasts’ answers vary. As for Kala, the TikTok “Tunnel Girl”, she said she did it for the challenge and to learn new skills, The New York Times reported. According to Maclean’s, Elton McDonald, a Canadian hobby tunneler, said digging helped him escape “from regular things, away from life … Nothing in particular. Just life itself.”

Tunnels throughout history

Documented cases of hobby tunneling date to at least the 19th century, when John Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland, an Englishman known as the “burrowing duke,” had workers build a complex network of tunnels underneath his estate. Bentinck reportedly lived in them as a recluse later in his life. William Lyttle, the “Mole Man of London” who died in 2010, spent 40 years digging underneath his London home before authorities told him to stop and fill the holes.

In 2006, Lyttle told The Guardian:

“I first tried to dig a wine cellar, and then the cellar doubled, and so on. But the idea that I dug tunnels under other people’s houses is rubbish. I just have a big basement. It’s gone down deep enough to hit the water table — that’s the lowest you can go … Tunnelling is something that should be talked about without panicking.”

In the end, digging your own tunnel is often illegal and dangerous work without proper permitting and training, depending on where you live and even when it’s on private property. In other words, kids — don’t try hobby tunneling at home.