The British Caving Library at Hidden Earth 2024
Book Review: Somerset Underground volume 4
This is the fourth and final volume of a set covering the caves, mines and associated features of the county of Somerset. Volume 1 was published in 2020 and features Bristol, Broadfield Down, the Bristol Channel and West Somerset. Volume 2, also published in 2020, features sites in West Mendip, Burrington and North Mendip. Volume…
Adventures Underground
The second edition of the popular Adventures Underground by Dave Haigh and John Cordingley is available now from Wildplaces Publishing. The first edition, reviewed here, won the 2017 Tratman Award and sold out very quickly. This revised paperback edition contains three new chapters, adding 48 pages to bring the total to 288. This very readable…
Newly-published Book – Karst: Environment and Management of Aquifers
Who isn’t tempted by a free book, especially when it’s about karst or caves? The Groundwater Project has just published a 300-page volume on the science of karst and management of aquifers. “Karst: Environment and Management of Aquifers” is a newly published book, authored by Zoran Stevanović, John Gunn, Nico Goldscheider and Nataša Ravbar. It…
GB Cavern, Mendip – Waterfall route re-opened
The Waterfall climb in GB Cavern, Somerset was closed in 2021 after a major rockfall. Following a recent inspection, Charterhouse Caving Company Ltd (CCC Ltd) have now re-opened the route and have issued the following statement:
Wells and Mendip Museum Exhibition: Out of Time: Underground Mendip
Wells and Mendip Museum plan to delve deep into the pioneering days of British caving in an exhibition that will run from 6th July to 7th September 2024. A new exhibition, Out of Time: Underground Mendip, will connect early 20th century quests for archaeological and geological knowledge with current environmental concerns. This exhibition connects the…
BCA: fee increase explained
Zac Woodford, the British Caving Association’s new Publications and Information Officer, explains why BCA needs to raise membership fees and demonstrates why BCA still provides excellent value for money for cavers and mine explorers.
Cave and Karst Science Vol 51 No 1: Speleothems, Shrimps and Fungus
The latest edition of the BCRA’s Cave and Karst Science contains five main papers, and a photo feature. It begins, however, with tributes to David St. Pierre, John Wilcock and David William Gill. The editors write that, yet again, it is their sad privilege to introduce and present words of tribute and celebration dedicated to…
Somerset Rockfalls: Fairy Cave Quarry and Goatchurch Cavern
The entrance to Goatchurch Cavern with the recent rockfall on the left. Photo: Wayne Starsmore The wet winter of 2023/24 is probably the cause of a couple of rockfalls that Mendip cavers should be aware of. A small not insignificant landslide has occurred in the car park at Fairy Cave Quarry. On the South East…
The Restoration of Main’s Barn, Priddy
The old stone barn on the edge of Priddy Green, Somerset, has been used by cavers for many decades, and by 2023 was in serious need of having some restoration work done. Peter Burgess reports. We are pleased to report the completion of the restoration work to Main’s Barn, Manor Farm, Priddy in Somerset. This…
Cave and Karst Science Vol 50 No 3: Biology, Archaeology and … Muons!
The latest edition of the BCRA’s Cave and Karst Science contains six main papers, some shorter forum pieces, including meeting reports and photo features; it begins with a retrospective appreciation of Gerald Wilford. Many will not have heard of Dr Wilford, but the effects of his work reverberate throughout the work of the BCRA. Without…
Descent 295: Coming Soon
The next issue of Descent magazine is due out shortly. If you haven’t got a subscription, go to the link at the end of this article and set one up! It is also possible to pre-order individual copies of the magazine on the Descent Magazine website. In Issue 295: Regional news includes an unusual 80m…
The 2023 BCRA Cave Science Symposium – 21st – 22nd October
The BCRA Cave Science Symposium and AGM is taking place on 21st and 22nd October 2023 in Leeds.
Save The Date: JRat Digging Award November 25th 2023
The 2023 JRat Digging Award presentation will take place in the Long Room of the Hunter’s Lodge Inn, Priddy, Somerset on Saturday 25th November. The evening will kick off at 7.30 pm and will include talks and presentations from Mendip digging teams before the presentation of the award to the winning team. The winning dig,…
Tratman Award for 2021: Rick Stanton takes the prize.
The publications of 2021 were particularly fine, both in quality and quantity, causing the shortlist for the Tratman Award to be much longer than usual. The award is made annually to the author or editor of the best caving book, journal or article in a journal, the criteria including not only the quality of…
Access restored to Singing River Mine, Shipham, Mendip
Access has been restored to a popular Mendip mine. The Council of Southern Caving Clubs (CSCC) has negotiated a new access agreement to Singing River Mine in Shipham, Somerset. The mine has not been accessible for a while, following a change of ownership as the new owners were anxious to avoid the possibility of access…
Otter Hole – A Unique Cave Controlled by the Moon and Tide.
Paul Taylor’s Otter Hole Film is now available on a USB Memory Stick. This comes complete with the “short version” of the film which has just been produced and concentrates on the water aspect of the cave, a copy of the Otter Hole Survey and a picture of the Hall of Thirty as shown on…
Cave and Karst Science Vol 50 No 2: Caves, Karst, Archaeology and a Great Scientist
There are five main papers, two short Forum pieces and a Photo Feature in the latest edition of the BCRA’s Cave and Karst Science, but it begins with an extensive tribute to the late Alexander Klimchouk. Alexander Klimchouk was undeniably one of the most influential cave researchers in the world and this well-deserved appreciation of…
Charterhouse goes Paperless.
The Charterhouse Caving Co. Ltd. has gone paperless, exchanging the old paper permits for new electronic ones. And they’re free. Since the Dawn of Time (the early 1950s), access to caves in the Charterhouse area of Mendip, including GB Cave and Longwood Swallet, has been managed by cavers for cavers on behalf of successive landowners….
Hidden Earth is Back
After a long break, Hidden Earth will be held again this Autumn. Hidden Earth, the UK’s major caving event has been missing from the calendar since 2019 when it was held at Glyndwr University, in Wrexham. The 2020 event was cancelled owing to the plague then ravishing these shores and since then there have been…
Book Review: Hidden Realms
Cave diver and photographer Martyn Farr has produced a tempting array of descriptions and photographs of 100 cave and mine sites. Hidden Realms aims to shine a light into some of the most alluring caves and mines in Great Britain and Ireland. One hundred sites have been chosen, in keeping with the recent vogue for…
ATLAS 50th Anniversary BBQ Weekend
Dave King, ATLAS digger, invites you to a weekend of digging, caving and two BBQs in Somerset this summer. 2023 is the 50th Anniversary of the Association of Thrupe Lane Advanced Speleologists (ATLAS). The ATLAS diggers have been involved with many digs over the last 50 years including Thrupe Lane Swallet, Honeymead Hole, Little Crapnell…
Volunteers needed, get involved!
The British Caving Association eAGM is being held at 10.30am on Sunday 11 June 2023 on Zoom. Details of how to join the meeting or watch the livestream can be found on the BCA website. In addition, the BCA is looking for volunteers to help run the organisation. BCA chair Russell Myers has the following…
Cave and Karst Science Vol 50 No 1: Cameras, Bacteria and Bones.
There are five main papers in the latest issue of Cave and Karst Science, looking at aspects of cave biology, archaeology and karst science. There is also, in a new departure a photo feature on corals in Wookey Hole. Terry Reeve has been looking at available details of archaeological and Pleistocene palaeontological sites associated with…
Coming Soon: Descent 290, Caving news, at home and abroad
Nicely on schedule, the next issue of Descent is about to drop through your letterbox. Make sure your subscription is up to date, so you don’t miss out on all the big news! Here are some clues on what to find in issue 290! Alan Jeffreys’ articles are always a pleasure to read, so look…
New findings fire up cave entry mystery
New claims as to the use of fire in Rising Star Cave in South Africa have thrown the spotlight back on the activities of the enigmatic Homo naledi. And it now it appears that there might have been an easier way for these hominins to have made their way into the cave system….
INCIDENT 91/2022 DEC 1st THU. 13.24 ALUM POT, HORTON IN RIBBLESDALE, NORTH YORKSHIRE – CAVE INCIDENT
Having descended through Lower Long Churn into Alum Pot, a caver (m, 38) fell a distance of up to 5 or 6m from the bottom pitch, sustaining suspected injuries to ankle, femur, lower back and chest. CRO members descended to the casualty, assessed his in…
Coming Soon: Descent 289, the start of the new editorial era …
The first issue edited by the new team of Chris Scaife and Carolina Smith is about to hit the streets. Make sure your subscription is up to date, so you don’t miss out on all the big news! Chris Scaife has told us at DB Towers that having their first issue finished is a…
Book Launch: Buy your favourite caver a great seasonal gift!
The Mendip Cave Registry and archive (MCRA) is pleased to announce that the third volume of Somerset Underground will be officially launched at the Hunters’ Lodge Inn, Priddy, Somerset, on December 10th 2022, starting at around 7.30pm. This is the third in a series of impeccably researched guides written by Rob Taviner to the caves…
INCIDENT 90/2022 NOV 24th THU. 13.19 BRIDGE HALL, LANCASTER HOLE, CASTERTON, CUMBRIA – CAVE INCIDENT
A caver (m, 54), on an exchange trip from Lancaster Hole to Cow Pot, slipped from the traverse in Bridge Hall, sustaining a slight head injury and knocking himself out briefly on landing. A loose rock also fell, landing on the caver’s wrist, caus…
Access to Fairy Cave Quarry
The Fairy Cave Quarry management team have asked us to post the following:
The Tratman Award for 2020 goes to ….
The end of an era … and a new one begins
After 34 years and 204 issues, Chris Howes and Judith Calford are handing Descent on to new management. Descent was launched in January 1969 by Bruce Bedford as a small-format black and white magazine. In 1979 it moved to the current A4 format and in 1983 Bruce handed over the publication responsibilities to Ambit Publications,…
INCIDENT 77/2022 SEP. 17th SAT. 21.44 STREAM PASSAGE POT (GAPING GILL SYSTEM), CLAPHAM, NORTH YORKSHIRE – CAVE INCIDENT
A caver (m, 53) was reported to be suffering from exhaustion and unable to continue in Stream Passage Pot. His party of seven or eight (?) left one member with him, exited the pot and called for CRO. As team members were organising to go assist, the tw…
Descent 288 is coming soon and maybe things aren’t so F*ing Hopeless, after all!
The time has come, the caver said, to talk of many things: of kit and digs and caving trips, of places we have seen, so make sure your subscription is up to date, as otherwise you might miss out on all the big news! Descent has been on quite a journey over the years, with…
BCRA Cave Science Symposium, AGM & field meeting, 8th – 9th October 2022
BCRA Cave Science Symposium 2022 hosted jointly with the Manchester Geological Association Symposium – Saturday 8th October, 2022 Field-trip – Sunday 9th October, 2022 Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Manchester SECOND CIRCULAR The British Cave Research Association and Manchester Geological Association are pleased to announce details of the 33rd Annual Cave Science…
WARNING: Rockfall in Eastwater Cavern, Mendip
WARNING: EASTWATER CAVERN, MENDIP. There has been a rock fall in the rift connection between the bottom of Dolphin Pot and the chamber before Dolphin Pitch. A section of the roof and some of the left-hand wall (looking down the rift) had become detached. CSCC Conservation and Access Officer, Wayne Starsmore, spent time dealing with…
NEW, SIMPLE, SAFETY ADVICE VIDEOS FOR DALES VISITORS
As readers of the CRO annual incident report, Rescue ’22, may recall, some of our members have been working with colleagues from the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association and volunteers from Mosaic (the organisation which aims to connect …
BCRA honours David ‘Deej’ Lowe
BCRA Council has awarded Honorary Membership of the Association to Dr David J ‘Deej’ Lowe. The award is in recognition of his outstanding service to the science of speleology and his service to BCRA. The former is evidenced by his many publications including contributions to papers on the hydrogeology of the Peak District and most…
Thirteen Lives – limited cinema sceenings on 18th July 2022
Thirteen Lives, the Hollywood film of the Thai cave rescue, hits selected cinemas on Monday 18 July. The long-awaited Hollywood film directed by Ron Howard, starring Viggo Mortensen as Rick Stanton and Colin Farrell as John Volanthen, is receiving its first ‘special screening’ in Soho, London on Monday 18th July 2022. At the same time…
BCRA Cave Science Symposium, AGM and field meeting, 8th – 9th October 2022
The 33rd BCRA Cave Science Symposium, hosted jointly with the Manchester Geological Association Symposium – Saturday 8th October, 2022 Field-trip – Sunday 9th October, 2022 Venue – Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Manchester First Circular and Call for Abstracts The British Cave Research Association (BCRA) and Manchester Geological Association (MGA) are pleased…
Cleaning up!
The Speleological Union of Ireland (SUI), have been very active over the years with major cave conservation clean-ups, and they’ve been hard at work, this time in Carren Mine in co. Clare. The cave clean-ups started again with the Student Forum in 2019. The SUI received a heritage grant from Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) which…
Descent 287 is coming soon, with huge holes, new caves and more …
Summer appears to have finally arrived, so instead of getting even hotter by pulling on grubby caving kit, why not relax in the sunshine with a cold beer – or your chilled tipple of choice – and catch up on all the latest at home and abroad with the latest issue of Descent. Josu Granja…
Caves of Assynt, edited by Tim Lawson and Peter Dowswell
The Grampian Speleological Group (GSG), Scotland’s premier caving club, has a long history of producing guides to the country’s caves; indeed this is third edition of a guide that was first published in 1972. However, in another sense this is a new departure. Previous editions were very much home-produced, but this has been laid out…
Honorary degrees for Thai cave rescue divers
Two of the cave divers who pulled off the remarkable rescue of 13 people from a flooded cave system in Thailand have been given honorary degrees by the University of Bristol. The operation led by John Volanthen, from Bristol, and Rick Stanton, from Coventry, has been described as one of the greatest rescues of all…
Have your say!
Following the British Caving Association’s AGM on Saturday, BCA members can now vote in the online ballot, open until 23.59 on Sunday 26th June 2022. Full instructions on how to case your vote can be found on the BCA website. If you missed the AGM but want to watch this before casting your vote, this…
Descent 286 coming soon, with bones, big stuff and more …
Descent 286 will be winging its way through the post shortly so take a moment to check whether or not your subscription is up to date and if not, check your subscription is up to date and if not, head over to Wildplaces Publishing and the nice folks there will sort you out. With summer…
Cave and Karst Science Vol 49 No 1: Bugs, Corrosion and … Volcanoes?
There are four major papers in the latest issue of Cave and Karst Science, two looking at different aspects of invertebrate fauna in caves, one studying mixing corrosion in indurated limestones and the last showing an unusual result from the monitoring stations at Pooles Cavern. Lee Knight and colleagues have carried out a descriptive survey…
BCRA Cave Archaeology Group – Recording Historic Graffiti & other markings, 4th/5th June 2022
The BCRA Cave Archaeology Group is holding a weekend field meeting on Recording Historic Graffiti & other markings in the Yorkshire Dales, based at Lower Winskill Farm, Settle on the weekend of 4th/5th June 2022. Friday An informal evening get-together for any early arrivals. Saturday Morning session: Introductions and information, talks and presentations. Lunch: 1200hrs…
BCA and BCRA react to the Russian war on Ukraine as Ukrainian caver Alexander Klimchouk accepts offer of honorary membership of BCRA
The British Caving Association (BCA) and the British Cave Research Association (BCRA) have issued their own open letters after widespread condemnation of the statement by the International Union of Speleology (UIS) on the Russian war against Ukraine. And Ukrainian cave explorer and cave scientist Dr Alexander Klimchouk has been made an honorary member of the…
Descent 285 coming soon, with discoveries at home and abroad!
Descent 285 will be out soon so take a moment a moment to check your subscription is up to date and if not, head over to Wildplaces Publishing and the nice folks there will sort you out. As ever, there’s a lot on offer! Even a global pandemic hasn’t managed to dampen cavers’ enthusiasm at…
BCA needs you!
The deadline for nominations and proposals for BCA’s upcoming AGM is fast approaching as BCA Chair Russell Myers explains:
BCA offer grants for young cavers to attend International Congress in France 2022
The BCA’s Youth and Development team have announced the availability of two grants of £500 to help groups of young cavers attend the 19th International Congress of Speleology being held this year in Savoie Mont Blanc, France. Applications are invited from groups of three or more young cavers who meet the following criteria: the groups…
BCRA Cave and Karst Ramble to the Upper Dove Valley – 19 March 2022
An introduction to the geology, hydrology and landforms of the upper Dove Valley. This is one of the best places in the country to examine the influence of geology on the evolution of the landscape and the formation of karst features. The field trip will start at the British Caving Library, Glutton Bridge at 10:30am…
INCIDENT 07/2022 – FEBRUARY 12th SAT. 12.50 PENNINE BRIDLEWAY, NEAR CLAYPITS, LANGCLIFFE, NORTH YORKSHIRE – MOUNTAIN INCIDENT
CRO were called out by Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) to assist them with an incident about half a mile along the Pennine Bridleway from the road head at Clay Pits Plantation. When CRO arrived we found that YAS had been able to drive their off-road …
Cave and Karst Science Vol 48 No 3: Tourists, bone, and travertine cascades
) The latest issue of Cave and Karst Science opens with a study of the impact of tourists on air flow in Poole’s Cavern. Later papers include a review of karstification of Permian limestones in northeastern England and a pictorial overview of travertine cascades from around the world. John Gunn, Matt Rowberry and Andrew Smith…
INCIDENT 05/2022 – JANUARY 30th SUN. 20.30 PETERSON POT / PIPPIKIN POT, LECK, LANCASHIRE – CAVE INCIDENT
Three cavers (m,22; f,21; m,21) were reported overdue on a Peterson Pot to Pippikin Pot through trip (with Mistral Hole as an alternative early exit, if short of time). Having sent a PhoneFind text and confirmed that their car was at Bull Pot Farm, the…
Descent 284 coming soon, with an extra eight pages on the OFD rescue
The first issue of Descent for 2022 will be out soon so take a moment to check your subscription is up to date and if not, head over to Wildplaces Publishing and the nice folks there will sort you out. Very few cavers can have been unaware of the serious accident in the Smithy area…
Waterwheel Swallet gate vandalised
Following recent vandalism to the gate on Waterwheel Swallet, Mendip, the CSCC Conservation and Access Officer, Graham Price has issued the following information. “Waterwheel has recently been broken into and the gate vandalised. The gate has been removed for repair/replacement and the entrance has been secured with a non-removable grill. Everyone will appreciate that it…
BCRA Cave Science Symposium, 15th January 2022, and other BCRA news
On the afternoon of 15th January 2022, the BCRA is hosting their 32rd Cave Science Symposium, a series of online talks postponed from November 2021 due to extreme weathers. The afternoon of talks on conservation, biofilms, speleothems, water tracing and speleogenis, includes presentations from Jo White on biofilms of British caves and mines, Bethany Fox…
