News

Book Review: Maidens of the Cave

Alan Jeffreys heads over to the American mid-West for an enjoyable underground murder romp in company with an appropriately named main character. Crime fiction searches ...
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Unlock Mendip – The Wessex Challenge 2025

In just over two weeks time the Bristol Exploration Club (BEC) will be hosting the next Wessex Challenge at the Belfry on Mendip! The event ...
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DNA from Fishmonger’s Swallet, South Gloucestershire, helps map evolution of fever-causing bacteria

A human jawbone housed in a small Bristol museum has contributed ancient DNA to ground-breaking research into bacteria. The jawbone was found in Fishmonger’s Swallet, ...
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BCRA Cave Science Symposium and AGM

Symposium - Saturday 11th October 2025 Field trips - Sunday 12th October 2025 School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol FIRST CIRCULAR The British Cave ...
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Book review: Hidden Inside the Highlands

For anyone who has ever struggled to explain the allure of venturing underground, Paul Savage recommends taking awhistle-stop tour beneath the Highlands in the company ...
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Jim dives to new depth record in Ireland

Jim Warny is the latest to break the record for deep cave dives in Ireland and the UK - even if he did admit that ...
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Descent Magazine: Issue 303 Out Soon

Descent magazine is renowned for its excellent coverage of caves and cavers and, judging from the preview, the forthcoming issue is continuing that tradition. Chris ...
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The Godstone Collapse: beyond the news reports

"GODSTONE - Falling-in of the Roadway – Breakage of the Water Main." The news headline above doesn't come from any of the reports on the ...
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Cave and Karst Science Vol 51 No 3: Mongolia, Mulu and Mendip

The latest edition of the BCRA’s Cave and Karst Science contains five papers, some shorter contributions and a photo spread. Maria Box and colleagues have ...
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Cave rescue teams celebrate £30,000 donation
Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation are this week celebrating after receiving more than £30,000-worth of life-saving gas detection equipment donated by Honeywell Analytics. The equipment, including ...
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Ali and Co dig deep at BagPit
Pete Buckley and Ali Moody assisted by a band of Wessex diggers have had more success recently at their dig at Bagpit, on the south ...
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Event: BCRA spring field meeting
A one-day British Cave Research Association field meeting will be held at the British Cave Monitoring Centre, Poole’s Cavern and Buxton Country Park on Saturday ...
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Book review: Caving: Episodes of Underground Exploration
Alan Jeffreys enjoys a caving classic even if he doesn't entirely approve of the author's somewhat cavalier attitude to risk ... Ernest Baker was well ...
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Descent 267 coming soon
Descent 267 will be with you very shortly! If you’re not up to date with your subscription don’t forget that the lovely folks at Wildplaces ...
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Book review: The Cave
Kate Mosse is better known for Labyrinth and other books, but Alan Jeffreys recommends taking a look at her novella, The Cave, set in the ...
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Ritual protection marks found in Creswell Crags
A large concentration of ritual protection marks have been discovered in caves in Creswell Crags, a limestone gorge on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. Darkness Below editor ...
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Descent 266 – the half century!
It’s birthday cake plus cheese and pineapple on sticks all round this issue as Descent 266 celebrates 50 years in print. And it’s a visually ...
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BCA newsletter now available
BCA Newsletter no 37 for January 2019 is now available. Editor David Rose has produced a bumper issue starting with a few words from him ...
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Book review: Potholing Below the Northern Pennines
In his quest for vintage caving books, Alan Jeffreys has delved into his bookshelves again, and has come up with a northern classic from the ...
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Students get the chance to meet in-cave monitoring experts
Students interested in undertaking a cave-related dissertation will get the chance to talk to experts on in-cave monitoring next month. The BCRA (British Cave Research ...
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Descent 266 coming soon
Descent 266 will be with you very shortly! If you’re not up to date with your subscription don’t forget that the lovely folks at Wildplaces ...
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Book review: Subterranean Climbers
Alan Jeffreys continues his look at classic caving books with a review of a classic text that captures the excitement of underground exploration in the 1930s and ...
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Book review: Pennine Underground
As part of our ongoing series of reviews of classic caving books, Alan Jeffreys looks at the groundbreaking Pennine Underground. With the plethora of UK ...
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Grab your chance, says Rising Star
Angharad Brewer Gillham collecting sediment for later analysis on the surface. Photo by Dirk van Rooyen, courtesy of University of the Witwatersrand.
In the final part of her report for Darkness Below, Rising Star Angharad Brewer Gillham looks back on her adventures underground in South Africa, and ...
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Presenting caving’s future part 2
Third year PR students at UWE Bristol were asked to come up with ideas for raising the profile and diversity of the British Caving Association ...
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Review: Cave and Karst Science, December 2018 Issue
The December 2018 issue of Caves and Karst Science is now available. Volume 45, Number 3 carries six articles. The first is a report on ...
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Book review: Rich Mountains of Lead
Mike Moore reviews a valuable addition to any mine explorer's book collection. This new book is a detailed study of  the lead, silver and zinc ...
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