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…
Descent 288 is now out, and marks a significant milestone in its long history. This issue is a major landmark for a magazine, which can justifiably claim to have become an established institution of the caving scene, not just in the UK but across the world. Apart from the expected mix of news and reviews…
A wide variety of news stories and superb features make up issue 287 of Descent, now distributed to caving outlets and subscribers. As usual, there is a news roundup from the main UK caving regions. From the North we read about ongoing digging work in Five Ways Pot, a cave that was first explored a…
If you want to guess the age of an old dog, and help a rescue team at the same time, you can find out how by buying the latest issue of Descent, which is full of lots of caving news as usual. If you subscribe to the magazine Descent, you should already have received issue…
, If you want to know why a couple of Aussie cavers have had two new species of cave spider named after them get your mitts on the new issue of Descent, which brings you caving news from around the world. Descent 280 should now have reached you by now, but if not, it’s time…
Here we go with our latest round-up of news and views from around the world. If you see anything you think we might have missed, do drop us a line. Many thanks to Herman de Swart for sending in a large number of links! Cave Art Science et Avenir: New cave art discovered in Spain…
In a new feature for 2020, we’re now bringing you a round-up of some of the news and views from around the world. Where multiple similar reports exist, we’ve opted for what appears to be the most complete. If you see anything you think we might have missed, do drop us a line. Cave Art…
Descent 271 has now arrived! If a copy hasn’t reached you, it’s time to head over to Wildplaces Publishing to subscribe now or if you’re lucky enough to have a caving shop anywhere near you, call in and get one from them. As we always say, we think Descent is great, and we want…
The historic permit system for the caves on Leck Fell, which was discontinued a few months ago, has now been replaced by the online booking system. This system, in use for the caves of Ingleborough Estate since November, now also allows landowner-consented access to Leck Fell caves to be booked with minimal fuss with no…
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 has advice for all would-be explorers – grab your chance when you can. I’m writing this on my way back to Switzerland and my day job, and a parcel of…
Honoured … Rick Stanton, Connor Roe and Chris Jewell (Photos by Linda Wilson) The British divers at the centre of the Thai cave rescue have been recognised in the New Year’s honours list. Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, who reached the stranded boys first, have both been awarded the George Medal, which is the second…
Angharad Brewer Gillham found herself a world away from her comfortable desk job in Switzerland when she joined the Rising Stars expedition in South Africa’s Dinaledi Chamber. Here’s her second report from the excavation.
The Ogof Draenen landowners have spoken for the first time following Cadw’s announcement of the closure of a controversial access into the cave system. The statement from Peter Jones and Brian Lewis of Pwlldu Conservation says: “From the outset it had been our wish that this hole, known as Twll Du, was closed permanently…
Accounts of an archaeological dig on Mendip have appeared in print – 50 years after initial discoveries took place. Picken’s Hole is a small, partially unroofed cave on Crook Peak, Somerset. It was excavated during the 1960s when significant Palaeolithic faunal assemblages, a small collection of Mousterian stone implements and some human teeth were found….
A recent connection has been dug in Wookey Hole Caves to link Charon’s Chamber with the adjacent Troup’s Rift. Charon’s Chamber is a high rift across the River Axe in Chamber One, The Witch’s Kitchen, and was first entered by the MNRC in 1934. A link between the two was originally predicted by Barrington and…
If you’re at a loose end from the 4th of April – 15th of April 2018, the Pod Raba Caving Club are organising an expedition to Kolkina Dupka cave, the deepest in Bulgaria, and one of the longest. The camp is located just outside of Zimevista village, some 50km away from Sofia, Bulgaria, and anyone…
Descent 260 will be with you very shortly! If you’re not up to date with your subscription, now is the time to renew. The lovely folks at Wild Places Publishing will be very happy to add you to the subscriptions list so you don’t miss out. As ever there’ll be a packed Newsdesk to bring…
The Ario Dream, a new film reflecting on 57 years of cave exploration by Oxford University Caving Club and the Ario Caves Project, premiered at the Kendal Mountain Festival on Saturday night and won “The People’s Choice Award” at the close of the festival. The film, made by Paul Diffley of Hot Aches Productions, follows…
Ogof Draenen in South Wales has once again been plunged into an entrance-related controversy following a connection made to the surface from inside the cave. This leads to the main cave via a series of short pitches equipped with fixed ladders, and there is also a rope traverse and a free-hanging pitch to negotiate. Rumours…
When I first began caving, I eagerly worked my way through as many of the caving classics as possible. Most of the ones I was able to get hold of were about exploration in France, a country whose caving regions I now know well. It was with great delight in the 1980s that I came…
The Hellenic Federation of Speleology has invited all cavers to join them in the 11th Balkan Caving Camp. The event is being held from August 28th to September 3rd 2017 in Leonidio in the Peloponnese in Greece and is being organized by the Hellenic Federation of Speleology together with the Balkan Speleological Union. The registration…
The British Caving Association Newsletter for July 2017 is available on the BCA website. The newsletter contains a report of the 2017 AGM and Party Weekend held in Castleton in June, which involved both alcohol and caving as well as BCA business! The draft minutes of the AGM are now available on the BCA website….
Descent 257 is now available! As ever, Newsdesk will bring you up to date with news from around the world, including the news that the Royal Geographical Society is hosting a British caving weekend from 1st to 4th December at its headquarters in London. The title of the event is A Golden Age of Cave…
It had never really occurred to me that caving instruction could be so enjoyable and simple to arrange. In the summer of 2016, I attended a meeting of the Council of Southern Caving Clubs, to represent my club, the Wealden Cave and Mine Society. This is a very rare event for the club – the…
The 250th edition of the caving magazine Descent is arriving on cavers’ mats this week and that’s a milestone in the life of Descent that deserves commemoration! The latest edition contains headline articles on the Caves of the Kosua in the Darai Plateau in Papua New Guinea; the awful desecration of Hunters’ Lodge Inn Sink…
CSCC DigFest 2016 Ever fancied finding new cave? Now’s your chance. The diggers of Mendip will be opening their digs for you to visit and have a go. ◾ Digging ◾ Photography Workshop with Duncan Simey ◾ Digger’s Question Time ◾ Wessex Challenge (hosted by the BEC) ◾ BBQ ◾ Stomp Friday June 3rd…
Back in April we reported that Tom Lord was inviting people to join the upcoming excavation of Haggs Brow Cave, at Lower Winskill near Settle. Tom has just sent us more information including details of an open day for visitors so we thought it was time for a quick reminder that work starts this Friday May…
Descent 249 is now available! Catch up with caving and mining news from around the regions. Features in this issue include: a fascinating article on the loss of Penderyn Cave mentioned in the previous issue (248); a description of the at times hair-raising Croesor-Rhosydd traverse through a mountain in north Wales, complete with some excellent…
In January, Darkness Below reported that work had started on a new dig called Tankard Shaft, an undocumented mine shaft, tantalisingly close to Tankard Hole, itself a promising dig abandoned in the 1950’s. The dig team is happy to report that after a significant amount of shaft stabilisation work, they have broken into a complex series…
The following letter has been circulated by Natural Resources Wales for the attention af all cavers and caving clubs active in North Wales, specifically the Alyn Gorge Caves: Alyn Valley Woods and Alyn Gorge Caves, Site of Special Scientific interest (SSSI) As you may be aware, a swallow hole has opened up within a…
Since the completion of the show-cave tunnel to Chamber 20 in Wookey, last year, a number of groups have been digging and exploring in various nooks and crannies that had never been properly pushed by the divers. This work has now borne its first fruits with the discovery of an overland (dry) route to Edmund’s…
On Sunday afternoon, a group of volunteers from North East Wales Search and Rescue was called out to help retrieve Molly the spaniel who had fallen into a 4-5 metre deep hole near the Devil’s Gorge in Loggerheads Country Park, Mold in Denbighshire. Molly was on a walk with her owner Neil Partridge from Pantymwyn…
An enthusiastic team of cavers, has been given permission to investigate a mine shaft that opened up in a field just east of the Hunters’ Lodge Inn, Priddy. This shaft is quite close to Tankard Hole, which was last investigated in the 1950s. The old dig was in a very large shakehole, and it reached…
We reported in November that St. Cuthbert’s Swallet, on Mendip had been closed due to instability in the entrance series Happily we can now report that the necessary remedial work has taken place and that the cave has now been reopened by the BEC. However, Hannah Bennett, the BEC’s Caving Secretary notes that: “… water…
More Press coverage A publicised visit by two Members of Parliament to Gaping Ghyll was reported here a few days ago. The press release was greeted with much enthusiasm by those cavers keen to see caving accepted as a permitted activity on Open Access land. Two local newspapers have also published the story, The Craven…
The current Secretary of the British Caving Association, Damian Weare, will not be seeking re-election at this year’s AGM in June, due to other commitments. Those who have worked with Damian over the years will appreciate he will be a hard act to follow, having served UK cavers and caving clubs very efficiently for some time….
The landowners who own access to the UK’s second longest cave, Ogof Draenan, have made it clear that they won’t be bullied by threats of legal action made by cavers Stuart France and Nigel Rogers In a post on UK Caving yesterday the landowners who between them own the land on which the entrances to Drws Cefn…
In one of the first posts on Darkness Below UK we briefly highlighted the work of US cartoonist John Tudek. At the time we were not sure how to categorise the post – should we create a category for Cave Art? Should there be one for cartoons? Should it appear under Deep Thought? In the end we popped…
We reported on 24 November 2015 about the legal action threatened by cavers Stuart France and Nigel Rogers against Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and the landowner concerning their claim to have access rights to Drws Cefn under the CRoW legislation. In the latest development in this long-running issue, their solicitors have now been sent a…
The long awaited NPC Journal: explorations and happenings 1987-2015 is finally out. Price is £16 plus P&P direct from the club. Get your copy by emailing journalenquiries@northernpennineclub.org.uk.
A new cave has been found in Carmarthenshire by a team of ten cavers from South Wales. The cave was dug throughout much of 2015, and the new cave passages did not come easily. An account on the South Wales Caving Club blog describes tight squeezes, awkward drops and boulder blockages. Added to this, flowing…
Phil Papard has recently published the Matienzo 2015 report on the Matienzo web site. With around fifty cavers involved at various times throughout the year 2015 has seen another 5.4km of cave found, pushed and surveyed as well as another 4.5km of resurveying work carried out and one hundred and twenty eight new caves and…
Please note the date of the Earby dinner has changed to the 13th February 2016. With the end 2015 fast approaching the Earby Pothole Club will soon enter their 71st year, and are planning a club dinner to celebrate seven decades of exploration. The event takes place on 13th February 2016 from 6.30pm at the Craven Arms in Settle….
Correspondent: Nick Harding. Axbridge Caving Group have broken into the long lost Upper Canada Cave in Hutton, near Western-super-Mare. The discovery of Upper Canada Cave came about during the quest for the lost cave of Hutton visited by Alexander Catcott in the 18th century. The discovery of masses of bones helped Catcott with his book “A Treatise…
Cavers Stuart France and Nigel Rogers are involved in the on-going dispute over closing or gating the Drws Cefn entrance to Ogof Draenen in South Wales. On the 20th November 2015 their solicitors, Richard Buxton of Cambridge, wrote to Natural Resources Wales, sending copies to the Pwll Du Management Group and also to the landowner….
In what promises, along with Eurospeleo 2016, to be one of the biggest events of next year the 2016 National Speleological Society are holding their convention in Ely, Nevada from July 16th to July 23rd. If you’re wondering where to spend your summer holidays next year what better place to start? Quoting the NSS web site:…
Sixteen UWFRA members attended a call out at Heber’s Gyhll near Ilkley on Saturday assisting a 61 year old male who had fallen five metres into a stream, sustaining shoulder and pelvic injuries. After treatment he was hauled up a short climb and carried to a waiting ambulance. The walkers family later expressed their thanks on the UWFRA…
Congratulations to the Soggy Bottom Digging Team for their magnificent effort in Home Close Hole during the past year. They are worthy winners of the 7th Annual J-Rat digging award, for the most cave found – and surveyed – in the last year in Somerset or in Scotland. Their finds for the year totalled 309.21…
Four years after the rock falls that not only radically altered the 3rd pitch but also blocked the way on to the 4th and 5th pitches and the bottom of the cave, Rhino Rift has now been completely reopened. Chris Binding and Andrew Atkinson, who had previously re-bolted the damaged pitches have now cleared the…
If, like us, you’ve a pile of old toners, ink cartridges or old mobile phones lying around the office (well not so many mobiles admittedly) why not help CRO and the environment by using their Ink2Cash scheme? Signing up easy, it took us just a few minutes this morning, the option to Gift Aid is…
Over the weekend during a rescue on Ingleborough a Bristow Search and Rescue helicopter landed to discuss the incident with CRO Rescue Controllers and were unable to take off again after a fault developed. The crew were forced to set the aircraft down on sloping ground where it slipped, tilting to one side and had to be…
Archaeologists and cavers working together have recovered skulls and bones as well as noting strange wall markings from an unnamed cave in the Yorkshire Dales. The story to date is told on DigVentures web site. The age and type of bones have yet to be determined.
John Tudek is a caver and artist who is releasing a series of cartoons which under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commerical Licence, which means clubs and other non commercial caving organisations are free to make use of them. They’re available from his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GrimmGrotto and you can contact him through there for more…
Do you fancy working for the British Caving Association? Along with the news that the two of the BCA council are wanting to step down – although it doesn’t mention which two jobs are up for grabs – the BCA’s latest newsletter includes the announcement that a new paid job is to be created…
The latest edition of the BCA newsletter is now available (October 2015). This is the first electronic only newsletter – paper copies will no longer be printed. To get an email version you can sign up on the BCA site – never miss another issue! The newsletter contains quite a few articles, including notice that…
The team was called out by North Yorkshire Police after a dog was reported down one of the rock crevasses on Guisecliff. Paddy the spaniel was soon located and team members climbed down the six metre hole to recover it. A new animal bag was used for the first time. It has been designed after…
Andrew Hinde, the BCA Conservation Officer, has asked that attention is drawn to the CNCC’s new Digging Guidelines – How to get permission to dig on a SSSI leaflet. Many of the cave systems in the Dales are designated SSSIs, but the leaflet is relevant to anyone seeking to dig in a SSSI throughout England,…
