CAVING CRAVING

Take Your Group Caving, Great Places to Go

Caving can be a fun activity for groups whether you go on a day trip or spend a week exploring a region. The U.K. has some very interesting cave to explore. Apart from the archeology, many of these cave structures are just interesting to be in. There are a number of centers where you can be taken caving with a guide and show you around the caves and where they are.  To give you a few ideas of places you can visit, some have been listed below.

Yorkshire Dales

The Yorkshire Dales are the home of Britain’s largest collection of caves, in terms of both number and size.

Caves are scattered about most of the hillsides in the area, but the caving community is centered around the small village of Ingleton where accommodation, cafés and caving shops can be found.

Unlike the situation in other parts of the world where caves are kept secret, the caves in Yorkshire are well documented. Dalesman publish the definitive reference guides documenting every hole in the ground big enough for a person although they tend to focus on the use of ladders rather than SRT. Guides covering SRT are available from the local shops.

Scotland

Scotland has a great selection of limestone caves scattered around, along with a number of sea caves, fissure caves and caves in other kinds of rock. Some of these limestone caves are more than two kilometers long. Most of the caves in Scotland a comparatively small to the rest of the UK.

The large number of islands off the west coast of Scotland mean that a there are quite a few sea caves to be found. The most famous of these is probably Fingal’s Cave on Staffa. The main central area to find caves is in Appin located in the west cost of Scotland.  Caves can also be found on the north coast of Scotland in Sutherland.

Wales

Most of the caves in Wales are to be found in the south of the country although there are a few in the north. Caves in the north of Wales are more comparable to those found in Scotland. There are a number of cave to explore from Porth-yr-Ogof to Ogof Ffynnon Ddu.

Ogof Draenen (cave of the hawthorns) was discovered in 1994 by members of the Morgannwg Caving Club. Exploration has been rapid and the cave is now over 62km long, one of the longest in the UK (the Easegill system in Yorkshire is longer). The cave is a very significant find, answering questions (and posing many more!) about the underground drainage of the area. 

Forest of Dean

The towering cliffs at Symonds Yat bear evidence of the cave bearing limestone in the area and in recent years new discoveries have well and truly put the Forest of Dean area onto the U.K. caving map. Discoveries such as Otter Hole, Wetsink, Redhouse Lane Swallet and more recently Miss Graces Lane have shown that there is a huge potential for finding new caves. With large resurgences and numerous sinks in the area the opportunities for virgin cave exploration are abundant. 

About the Author

Robert has worked in the travel industry for the past 5 years and has been involved in flight holidays, escorted tours and cruising. Useful resources include: Coach hire and Hotels in the UK

The troll in the cave