Gouffre des Vitarelles, Pit cave in Gramat, France.

Gouffre des Vitarelles is a collapse doline on the causse de Gramat, a funnel 78 metres deep and about 440 metres around, opening on the limestone plateau at 310 metres altitude. Its west slope, fitted with rails for wagons, is overgrown; the opposite cliff is abrupt. At the bottom lies a disused experimental site, and a small spring described by Martel in 1894 rises a few metres above the base of the cliff.

Édouard-Alfred Martel described a small spring in the shaft in 1894, during early exploration of the Ouysse's underground course. In 1948 a horizontal access tunnel 8 m long, 2 m wide and 2.5 m high was dug at the foot of the cliff, and the Alinat siphon was dived that same year. The site lies within the CEA Gramat enclosure, and a disused experimental installation occupies the floor of the doline.

The name comes from Occitan: "Abitarèlas" means small dwellings, and "Vitarelle" is a mistaken French transcription of the southern pronunciation, as Adolphe Joanne noted in his 1890 geographical dictionary. The site lies inside the CEA Gramat military enclosure, and the railway from Gramat to Rodez follows the line of the underground river on the surface.

The site lies inside the CEA Gramat enclosure, a military area dependent on the Délégation générale de l'armement, so access is restricted. The cave entrance is reached through a horizontal tunnel dug in 1948, closed by a one-metre concrete wall with a manhole and a two-metre cubic cage. Below, a 50-metre shaft of 1.60 m diameter leads to the fossil gallery and the river at 186.7 m altitude.

The river inside was named after the sinkhole, not the reverse: the Rivière des Vitarelles drains about 170 km² of the north-eastern causse de Gramat, fed by the Ouysse sinking at Thémines and the Francès at Théminettes. At the embarkation point it lies at 186.7 m altitude, measured on the rock of its bed.