Descent 298 is due out on June 8th, so without further ado, here is what we can look forward to reading.

In Newsdesk, there is a challenger for the title of world’s largest sea cave, and findings that suggest a difficult caving trip undertaken by ancient humans.

In regional news, dye tracing in the Forest of Dean has shown some great potential for Slaughter Stream Cave. There are some extensions to report in County Fermanagh and South Wales, several success stories by diggers in the Yorkshire Dales, an exciting find in the Peak District, some minor progress by Cardiff’s student diggers and, in international news, reports from Matienzo and Meghalaya.

Features:

Caving in the City
Accompanying photos by Steve Sharp, Graham Mullan describes Pen Park Hole – a highly unusual cave located next to a housing estate in north Bristol.

Blunders Into the Unknown
There is a great crescent of limestone sweeping around Morecambe Bay, from Barrow to Lancaster, but the area contains few known major caves. Andy Walsh recounts rare tales of significant finds in the area from 60 years ago.

Competition Time
The Descent team has teamed up with the QI Elves, and hosts of the podcast No Such Thing as a Fish, to bring us a unique competition. To be in with a chance of winning a great prize, we are asked to send in some facts about caves and underground exploration. We will also discover the winner and correct answers from the Descent 297 quiz.

The Greater Horseshoe Comeback
Chris Scaife has been underground with the Sussex Bat Group, looking for Greater Horseshoe bats, which have recently returned to South East England after an absence of 100 years.

The Caves of Peruaçu
Brazil will host next year’s International Congress of Speleology. Anyone unsure about whether to attend could well be swayed by Martyn Farr’s two-part article about the country’s exceptional caves.

In Memoriam
The caving world has lost some great characters in recent months. Descent has obituaries for Dave Gill, Pete Rose, Andy Sewell and David St Pierre.

Cymmie’s Rucksac Edition
Alan Jeffreys has uncovered a draft copy of an unpublished guidebook: A Guide to the Yorkshire Caves and Potholes (The Rucksac Edition) by Eli ‘Cymmie’ Simpson, dated 1932.

The letters page features more discussion about Eli Simpson – clearly a caver with a real legacy.