David Rose
Active member
New entrance to Ogof Draenen
No cave in the country has attracted quite so much controversy over access and management as Ogof Draenen, which at roughly 70km is the longest system in Wales, with potential for significant further enlargement. The Pwll Du Cave Management Group (PDCMG), an access control body run by cavers, was set up in 1994 to manage cave access with the consent of the then landowner, the Coal Authority. This included members of Oxford University Cave Club, an institution with which your editor has long been associated.
Some of the cave?s explorers, including the OUCC contingent, have tried for many years to maintain a ?single entrance? policy, in order to preserve the adventurous nature of trips far into Draenen. Others, equally vehemently, disagree. The Nunnery, a second Ogof Draenen entrance, was discovered in the late 1990s, and capped by the PDCMG. Shortly afterwards, the land containing both the original entrance and the Nunnery was sold to Pwll Du Conservation Ltd. PDCMG then contracted an access agreement to the original entrance only with this new landowner.
In 2009, the focus for what has become an ugly conflict among cavers shifted to another new entrance, Drws Cefn (Welsh for ?back door?). This small cave was first discovered during the Coal Authority era, but that year it was connected to the main system via a series of crawls. Using Drws can cut an hour or more travel from the original entrance, so reducing the time needed for pushing trips in the cave?s far reaches and making the eastern part of the system more amenable to shorter visits, such as local cavers might wish to conduct for midweek digging projects.
Unlike the original Draenen entrance, Drws Cefn happens to lie on CROW Act access land. It has been open and unlocked since 2010 ? so rendering the single entrance policy, for the time being, null and void.
In 2015, the landowning company submitted a bat conservation licence application to Natural Resources Wales to block Drws Cefn permanently with a large concrete and steel structure in the entrance shaft. This was supported by the PDCMG, but many Welsh cavers resented the idea, not least because of the principle of open CROW Act access. The ensuing row was bitter. Eventually, NRW 'withdrew' the licence application for the barrier on the grounds that the cave bats were not at risk from cavers. NRW indicated that a 'development' class of licence would be needed here instead, since there was no bat conservation issue to address.
Last year, PDCMG developed a second Drws Cefn closure plan. This would have involved a fixed round scaffold pole across the narrow entrance crawl. NRW objected to this on the grounds that vandalism by cavers opposed to closing Drws might have a negative impact on the bats. Drws stayed open.
Three very recent developments suggest this long saga may be nearing some kind of resolution. The first is that the PDCMG has come up with yet another proposal to block Drws Cefn, this time with an external grille over the entrance shaft that would stop cavers, but not bats. Its design detail has yet to be submitted to NRW for comment or approval. However, the prospects of this being enacted may have been reduced by the second development - changes of personnel on the PDCMG committee. Some of its members have stood down and, in informal conversations with your correspondent, one or two of their replacements have suggested they may not be so strongly in favour of the single entrance policy as their predecessors were. Moreover, some of the Welsh cavers most strongly opposed to blocking Drws have indicated that if attempts were made to make the grille a reality, they would take legal action. They say they believe the law would be strongly on their side.
It is to be hoped that this will not be necessary: cavers fighting other cavers, the landowner or NRW in the courts would not be a pretty sight. Complicating matters still further, there is potential for even more entrances, because Ogof Draenen comes very close to the surface in a number of other places.
In any event, the third recent development may well render all this redundant. A little over a year ago, at least the fourth Draenen entrance was discovered by climbing avens inside the cave. Kept secret at the time, news of this has gradually filtered into the public domain. Also on CROW Access Land, Twll Du ('black hole' in Welsh) joins the main cave some way further into the mountain than Drws Cefn does. I went down the new entrance recently and it seemed to me to be the best and safest Draenen entrance yet found. Unlike the original, it is not flood prone, and does not rely on extensive shoring through a potentially dangerous boulder choke. Unlike Drws Cefn, it does not involve an unpleasant, tight crawl. It consists of a series of short, spacious drops rigged with fixed ladders, followed by a roped traverse around the lip of a pitch and then a comfortable free-hanging descent on rope of about 12 metres. This does require visitors to be competent in SRT.
How the landowner and the reconstituted PDCMG decide to handle this situation remains to be seen. But it does look like a potential game-changer.
Here are three photos taken near Twll Du ? yours truly on the traverse, one of the fixed ladders, and the SRT pitch. They were taken by Ed Waters and Martyn Farr.
No cave in the country has attracted quite so much controversy over access and management as Ogof Draenen, which at roughly 70km is the longest system in Wales, with potential for significant further enlargement. The Pwll Du Cave Management Group (PDCMG), an access control body run by cavers, was set up in 1994 to manage cave access with the consent of the then landowner, the Coal Authority. This included members of Oxford University Cave Club, an institution with which your editor has long been associated.
Some of the cave?s explorers, including the OUCC contingent, have tried for many years to maintain a ?single entrance? policy, in order to preserve the adventurous nature of trips far into Draenen. Others, equally vehemently, disagree. The Nunnery, a second Ogof Draenen entrance, was discovered in the late 1990s, and capped by the PDCMG. Shortly afterwards, the land containing both the original entrance and the Nunnery was sold to Pwll Du Conservation Ltd. PDCMG then contracted an access agreement to the original entrance only with this new landowner.
In 2009, the focus for what has become an ugly conflict among cavers shifted to another new entrance, Drws Cefn (Welsh for ?back door?). This small cave was first discovered during the Coal Authority era, but that year it was connected to the main system via a series of crawls. Using Drws can cut an hour or more travel from the original entrance, so reducing the time needed for pushing trips in the cave?s far reaches and making the eastern part of the system more amenable to shorter visits, such as local cavers might wish to conduct for midweek digging projects.
Unlike the original Draenen entrance, Drws Cefn happens to lie on CROW Act access land. It has been open and unlocked since 2010 ? so rendering the single entrance policy, for the time being, null and void.
In 2015, the landowning company submitted a bat conservation licence application to Natural Resources Wales to block Drws Cefn permanently with a large concrete and steel structure in the entrance shaft. This was supported by the PDCMG, but many Welsh cavers resented the idea, not least because of the principle of open CROW Act access. The ensuing row was bitter. Eventually, NRW 'withdrew' the licence application for the barrier on the grounds that the cave bats were not at risk from cavers. NRW indicated that a 'development' class of licence would be needed here instead, since there was no bat conservation issue to address.
Last year, PDCMG developed a second Drws Cefn closure plan. This would have involved a fixed round scaffold pole across the narrow entrance crawl. NRW objected to this on the grounds that vandalism by cavers opposed to closing Drws might have a negative impact on the bats. Drws stayed open.
Three very recent developments suggest this long saga may be nearing some kind of resolution. The first is that the PDCMG has come up with yet another proposal to block Drws Cefn, this time with an external grille over the entrance shaft that would stop cavers, but not bats. Its design detail has yet to be submitted to NRW for comment or approval. However, the prospects of this being enacted may have been reduced by the second development - changes of personnel on the PDCMG committee. Some of its members have stood down and, in informal conversations with your correspondent, one or two of their replacements have suggested they may not be so strongly in favour of the single entrance policy as their predecessors were. Moreover, some of the Welsh cavers most strongly opposed to blocking Drws have indicated that if attempts were made to make the grille a reality, they would take legal action. They say they believe the law would be strongly on their side.
It is to be hoped that this will not be necessary: cavers fighting other cavers, the landowner or NRW in the courts would not be a pretty sight. Complicating matters still further, there is potential for even more entrances, because Ogof Draenen comes very close to the surface in a number of other places.
In any event, the third recent development may well render all this redundant. A little over a year ago, at least the fourth Draenen entrance was discovered by climbing avens inside the cave. Kept secret at the time, news of this has gradually filtered into the public domain. Also on CROW Access Land, Twll Du ('black hole' in Welsh) joins the main cave some way further into the mountain than Drws Cefn does. I went down the new entrance recently and it seemed to me to be the best and safest Draenen entrance yet found. Unlike the original, it is not flood prone, and does not rely on extensive shoring through a potentially dangerous boulder choke. Unlike Drws Cefn, it does not involve an unpleasant, tight crawl. It consists of a series of short, spacious drops rigged with fixed ladders, followed by a roped traverse around the lip of a pitch and then a comfortable free-hanging descent on rope of about 12 metres. This does require visitors to be competent in SRT.
How the landowner and the reconstituted PDCMG decide to handle this situation remains to be seen. But it does look like a potential game-changer.
Here are three photos taken near Twll Du ? yours truly on the traverse, one of the fixed ladders, and the SRT pitch. They were taken by Ed Waters and Martyn Farr.