Caving in the United Kingdom
The four major caving areas of the United Kingdom are in North Yorkshire, South Wales, Derbyshire, and Mendips. Minor areas include Devon, North Wales, and Grampian.
One of the oldest established clubs, University of Bristol Spelæological Society, was founded in 1919.
Probably the first cave diving explorations in the world took place in Wookey Hole Caves in the 1930s using standard diving dress.
Due to the long and active history of caving, almost every entrance with surface access has been fully explored, so the majority of new discoveries take place underground after months and sometimes years of cave digging.
Notable recent discoveries since 1995 include Titan, the largest shaft in Britain, and Ogof Draenen, the second longest cave in Britain.
Owing to the long and active history of caving in Britain, the discovery of new caves is rare. Practically every sump in existence has been dived and pushed to its limit. Breakthroughs now only occur as a result of digging projects which sometimes last months or even years. For most British cavers, the exploration of new caves happens abroad. Many clubs run regular expeditions to particular territories abroad such as Matienzo or Picos which are as much a part of caving in the UK as a cave in the UK actually would be.
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[edit] Information resources
Many clubs hold extensive libraries recording decades of exploration in terms of surveys and logbooks, as well as newsletters, reports and books detailing the history of cave explorations both within their nearby areas and abroad on expeditions. Other information is in the form of extensive personal archives that have been bequeathed to the community.
[edit] Periodicals
- Descent (caving magazine which produces bimonthly issues
- Speleology (formerly "Caves and Caving") the magazine of the BCRA.
- many clubs publish annual journals of their expedition accounts.
[edit] Libraries
The following libraries are open to club members as well as outside interested visitors.
- British Caving Library - funded by the BCRA and currently employing a full time librarian
- Red Rose Caving and Pothole Club Library
- Craven Pothole Club
- UBSS library including museum
- South Wales Caving Club newsletters 1952-present
- Grampian Speleological Group library catalogue
- Northern Penine Club - archive material
- Cave Diving Group newsletters - (1950-present)
- Bradford Pothole Club
- Bristol Exploration Club bulletin (1953-present)
- Wessex Cave Club journals published since 1950
- U.C.E.T. - United Cavers Exploration Team (Also covers Mine Exploration - UK)
- Yorkshire Subterranean Society
[edit] Surveys
Cave surveys have historically been kept by the person who drew them (with the measurement data often lost), or deposited in a club library. They are not often published (except in reduced form in a guidebook) and can be difficult to obtain because there is no central catalogue listing who holds what.
There are a few projects which are attempting to assemble on-line maps and catalogues from repositories of surveys by overlaying them on satellite imagery:
- cavemaps.org - Yorkshire based
- BDCC Mendip map - Bracknell District Caving Club map
[edit] Guidebooks
The most widely referenced guidebooks for caving the UK are:
- "Northern Caves" in three volumnes, most recent edition published 1998
- "Mendip Underground" published 1999
