They tend to get neglected don't they? But there are some interesting ones out there. I'm not compiling a guide book (although the thought has occurred) and Tony in West Wales features quite a few in "Caves of West Wales", but there's not a lot of info for those of us who live outside the traditional caving areas.

Here's a few I've come across in Cornwall, anyone else know of any other good ones?

Seal Hole, St Agnes: not easy to find. At the back of the old harbour at Trevaunance Cove a small artificial tunnel leads over a shallow pit and enters the side of an awesome cave about 800ft long and 50ft square which is open at both ends. At low tide you can cover most of it in the dry, but when the tide comes in it becomes spectacular.

Porth cave: see thread in "Devon and Cornwall".

Wheal Coates has an enormous sea cave below it formed on a lode which can be accessed about an hour either side of low tide. There are steps cut into the walls which lead up into mine workings, a level in the opposite wall which enters the side of the main shaft, and an extensive adit in the back which leads up a waterfall into interesting going, featuring quicksand at one point.

Got to get back to work now. I'll add others if anyone's interested.

There are some quite cool ones on Lundy, at the south end by the lighthouse

There's a particularly dire one up here at seaton sluice, a few miles N of tynemouth near st marys island.

It's in sandstone and i went to look but really didnt want to go in, in fact NC1 describes a few of them but like the cliff above they are rapidly becoming part of the north (or german?) sea, and i didnt want to be there when it happened.

Reccomendation: don't bother- go to cornwall, its warmer!

tt.

Right, got a few gash minutes again...

There's a good one in Newtrain Bay, near Padstow. It involves the inevitable low-tide excursion round the base of the cliffs to an insignificant-looking hole which immediately opens up into a very pretty grotto, ascending a steep ramp with gours and stals for about 40ft. It's not in limestone but in a calcareous bed in the shales. There's no evidence that anyone else has been in there, ie it's pristine and white.

Cligga Mine, near Perranporth, is a 3-d maze with some quite impressive bits, one of which opens out into the roof of a sea cave. If you traverse precariously round the roof of the cave it gains access to a further few hundred feet of workings. There's no placement for runners or bolts because the granite is kaolinised.

At Godrevy, near Hayle, there's a short but large sea cave that has a superb hand traverse around it that goes at about 6a, if you're into climbing. Godrevy's a brilliant spot for bouldering - lots of pumpy undercuts and brittle holds.

Erm, got to get back to work now - the boss is scowling at me.

Theres perposterous tails at bosherston head in pembroke. Sounds great - HVS / E2 climb in at sea level - climb up and exit through blow hole 3 yards back from the edge.

Really want to go down there and do it this summer.

Sam

It's supposed to be a really good route and quite troglodytic. I would also suggest Groovy Tubeday at Dinas Rock for a caving/climbing combo. Again around E1, with a sudden rush of exposure.

There's a good sea cave at Perran St George which is formed on a crosscourse and involves a weird traverse over vivid malachite-stained rock into the zawn. Yet another adit in the back extends for a couple of miles and at one time connected to a shaft in the kitchen of the Green Parrot pub in Perranporth (not a legend). It might be tempting to take a kayak in when the tide's up but you'd probably get smashed to smithereens!

Don't forget:

http://www.smoocave.org/

Don't forget:

http://www.smoocave.org/

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Ah yes. Wonder if my name's still written in rocks on the bank outside? Was years ago i went there so its probably been overgrown or cannibalised.

tt.

I seem to recall exploring quite a large one on the south coast of Guernsey back in the 1960's - the Creux Mahie, if my memory is working correctly. Big, but with a rather collapsed entrance. One scrambled in over a big pile of boulders that had fallen from the cliff face above, keeping very quiet and hoping that no more would fall and block the entrance while you were inside. :?

There were a few others that I managed to explore, but it was a long time ago. Unfortunately my map of Guernsey is back in the UK...

Thinking hard - there was one on the west coast called something like Creux es Fees - somewhere near Fort Hommet, I believe - where the sea still came in at high tide (Creux Mahie was dry, iirc). Explored that one with the aid of a torch, it was nowhere near as big as Creux Mahie, but had some very large spiders in it :shock: :roll:

The entrance looked a bit crumbly there, as I recall. Wonder how much of it is left, now?

(In case anyone is wondering, it's lunchtime here just now. :wink: )

It's breakfast time here now.

The cave below Tintagel is quite idyllic but not very long; mind you, at least it's a through trip.

There's definitely a book in the making here...

"Caves of the SW Coast stashed with drugs and money"

cap 'n chris said:

"Caves of the SW Coast stashed with drugs and money"

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That's one cave I'm not telling you about.

There's the one underneath Pembroke Castle - Wogan's Cave - not that I've ever seen Terry in it. Quite impressive but little else. Like Terry.

Then there's the archaeological sea caves on Gower, but they're well known.

There's another one at Newquay that tends to get used for barbecues and impromtu parties, until the tide comes in, when it then becomes the site of impromptu rescues.

There are some interesting caves in the cliffs of the South-East.

Beachy Head Cave is a phreatic tube in the chalk cliffs near Eastbourne, with another cave Patrick's Rift close by. These are not strictly speaking sea caves, but karst features exposed by the action of the sea. A visit to these caves runs the risk of being cut off by the tide. In the past there has also been the risk of being spotted by vigilant coastguards, concerned about people getting cut off, when they were actually planning an overtide visit.

Also Canterbury Cave, which confusingly is not at Canterbury but at St Margaret's Bay near Dover. This is also a phreatic tube at beach level exposed by the action of the sea.

The South East is not totally devoid of natural caves.

I have to admit to not having visited either of these sites.

Peter Burgess said:

There are some interesting caves in the cliffs of the South-East.

Beachy Head Cave is a phreatic tube in the chalk cliffs near Eastbourne, with another cave Patrick's Rift close by. These are not strictly speaking sea caves, but karst features exposed by the action of the sea. A visit to these caves runs the risk of being cut off by the tide. In the past there has also been the risk of being spotted by vigilant coastguards, concerned about people getting cut off, when they were actually planning an overtide visit.

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When we did Beachy Head Cave we were advised by the Coastguard at Birling Gap to phone the coastguard's south coast control centre to avoid such a callout.
They can be contacted on 023 9255 2100 and were most courteous, thanking me for notifying them and asking that we called them back when we had finished.
This is actually quite a good idea for Beachy Head Cave as you are right opposite the lighthouse which (when I was there) is manned, they are quite likely to spot you and possibly call out the coastguard.

Also you have a built in callout system which ensures that the coastguard are the first to know about the cave rescue (like most cave rescues )

The other advice the Coastguard at Birling Gap gave us was to approach th cave from Eastbourne. This is a BAD idea. You have no idea how many clift falls there are to cross and when you get to Beachy Head you look towards Birling Gap longingly, knowing that it is the wrong way and you have to traverse all the falls again to get back to the car.

Les W said:

Peter Burgess said:

There are some interesting caves in the cliffs of the South-East.

Beachy Head Cave is a phreatic tube in the chalk cliffs near Eastbourne, with another cave Patrick's Rift close by. These are not strictly speaking sea caves, but karst features exposed by the action of the sea. A visit to these caves runs the risk of being cut off by the tide. In the past there has also been the risk of being spotted by vigilant coastguards, concerned about people getting cut off, when they were actually planning an overtide visit.

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When we did Beachy Head Cave we were advised by the Coastguard at Birling Gap to phone the coastguard's south coast control centre to avoid such a callout. (

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That reminds me of a slide show Mick Fowler, the climber, gave to a climbing club I used to belong years ago. Mick is well known, among other things, for a perverse liking to climbing on "dodgy" ground such as the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare and had climbed a route called "Great White Fright" on Beachy Head chalk cliffs using ice axes and crampons with normal ice protection gear.

As he and his second were well into the route they were hailed from a Coatsgaurd below with the converstaion along the lines of:

CG: "Come down at once - we have come to rescue you!"
Climbers: "We are perfectly safe."
CG: "I strongly advise you to come down!"
Climbers: "Its much safer to continue to the top."
CG: "But I have come to rescue you!"
Climbers: "How?"
CG: "?"

What about OTTER HOLE, it's almost in the sea, well it is tidal.
So is it in the sea?

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=51.6621&lon=-2.687&scale=25000&icon=x

That doesn't look like the sea to me

whitelackington said:

What about OTTER HOLE, it's almost in the sea, well it is tidal.
So is it in the sea?

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It's not really a sea cave is it as such, ie it's not eroded by the sea. Which is what a sea cave is, see.

Hi Gus, perhaps you are not thinking Global Warming


lots of our caves may become sea caves,
I do not know when Otter Hole was initiated but if you were to cast your mind back 18 thousand years, you would then be right, the pesent entrance would be 100 metres above the sea, perhaps the cave was longer then?

Do the Otter Hole Buff's Know :?:

Oops, sorry about my facetious answer. I didn't realise you were asking a serious question. Now then , let me see...

Otter Hole would have been formed before the last ice age, or at least the big upper passages would have been. Then the phreatic table dropped and allowed an underfit stream to invade it and cut the smaller lower passages, which would still have been a bit above sea level. Then when the glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago, we had a bit of isostasy (the area bobbing up and down like a cork on water) which led to the river Wye becoming a Ria (drowned river valley) so the lowest parts of the cave became tidal. I'll have to dig out my ancient BCRA Otter Hole splurge, because what I've just said might be complete bollocks.

Cheers