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Collectors piece caves

bagpuss

bagpuss

Well-known member
What's your favourite 'collectors piece' cave on Mendip.. Thinking along the lines of smaller caves that rarely get any visits.. often requiring bashing down undergrowth to access it.. sometimes considered as type 2 fun due to short length or something particularly arduous..
Ubley Warren Pot was one of my top smaller caves for a while, but now overtaken by Thrupe Swallet which was well worth the trip for some really interesting formations (less so the grit in the eyes coming back up the pitch!)
Bonus points for any recommendations not in the current Mendip Underground that are worth a look :)
 
I always found North Hill Swallet to be either interesting or a complete waste of time. Sometimes both, simultaneously…

It does have the advantage of being the nearest cave to the Wessex (depending where you measure from) but even then hardly anybody goes there.
 
Oceanrower said:
I always found North Hill Swallet to be either interesting or a complete waste of time. Sometimes both, simultaneously…

It does have the advantage of being the nearest cave to the Wessex (depending where you measure from) but even then hardly anybody goes there.
Click to expand...
Curious to hear more about it, not visited that cave!
 
I am getting on a bit but i did North Hill a few years ago with Ken Passant simply because I thought I ought. Only tackle if you are reasonably confident at climbing is for the entrance shaft which is deceptively spacious. Rumble Plonk pitch is a careful free climb. There are one or two squeezes but nothing desperate. Got to the Master's Cave but not to the bitter end. There were attempts to dig the end a few years ago. I think it is worth a visit - once. Home Close is superb and highly recommended but muddy. The streamway is impressive and it is a shame there isn't more of it. With the BFC to visit it is well worth a trip. Hilliers Cave to the Red Room is a fine trip too.
 
mrodoc said:
I am getting on a bit but i did North Hill a few years ago with Ken Passant simply because I thought I ought. Only tackle if you are reasonably confident at climbing is for the entrance shaft which is deceptively spacious. Rumble Plonk pitch is a careful free climb. There are one or two squeezes but nothing desperate. Got to the Master's Cave but not to the bitter end. There were attempts to dig the end a few years ago. I think it is worth a visit - once. Home Close is superb and highly recommended but muddy. The streamway is impressive and it is a shame there isn't more of it. With the BFC to visit it is well worth a trip. Hilliers Cave to the Red Room is a fine trip too.
Click to expand...
Do you know what the access is for Home Close?
I love Hilliers to the Red Room, often combined with a through trip exit via Fairy. There's some lovely formations to photograph in the various chambers.
 
bagpuss said:
What's your favourite 'collectors piece' cave on Mendip.. Thinking along the lines of smaller caves that rarely get any visits.. often requiring bashing down undergrowth to access it.. sometimes considered as type 2 fun due to short length or something particularly arduous..
Ubley Warren Pot was one of my top smaller caves for a while, but now overtaken by Thrupe Swallet which was well worth the trip for some really interesting formations (less so the grit in the eyes coming back up the pitch!)
Bonus points for any recommendations not in the current Mendip Underground that are worth a look :)
Click to expand...

Thrupe Swallet - is there still a horrific shit puddle at the top of the pitch to crawl through? The only time I tried to visit it was so disgusting (and I have low standards) we aborted.

Other good collectors caves I've enjoyed (and so been to more than once)...
Welshes Green
Mangle
Honeymeads (Winter only due to CO2)
Balch's Aven & Balch's Coral (Summer only due to Bats).
Pierre's lower series (if you fit).
Rose Cottage
Stoke Lane (just as far as the sump combined with a look round Brownes Hole is a nice trip if you don't want to go through the sump).
Sally's Rift - not really Mendip but not a million miles away.
 
tim.rose2 said:
Thrupe Swallet - is there still a horrific shit puddle at the top of the pitch to crawl through? The only time I tried to visit it was so disgusting (and I have low standards) we aborted.

Other good collectors caves I've enjoyed (and so been to more than once)...
Welshes Green
Mangle
Honeymeads (Winter only due to CO2)
Balch's Aven & Balch's Coral (Summer only due to Bats).
Pierre's lower series (if you fit).
Rose Cottage
Stoke Lane (just as far as the sump combined with a look round Brownes Hole is a nice trip if you don't want to go through the sump).
Sally's Rift - not really Mendip but not a million miles away.
Click to expand...
The crawl to the top of the pitch is clean, the bit where you sit to lifeline is silty but not as bad as it was last year according to someone who had been before. Its definitely worth a re- visit as its very pretty at the end of the cave.

Brownes hole/Stoke Lane hoping to visit soon..

Pierres lower series has a bypass to the downwards squeeze which makes it a bit more doable, but still squeeze after that bit though!

Mangle hole is the only cave we've come very close to missing our call out time, said I'd never return but wondering if its been long enough to forget what it was I didn't like!
 
bagpuss said:
Do you know what the access is for Home Close?
I love Hilliers to the Red Room, often combined with a through trip exit via Fairy. There's some lovely formations to photograph in the various chambers.
Click to expand...
Key from the Shepton I believe for home close
 
bagpuss said:
Mangle hole is the only cave we've come very close to missing our call out time, said I'd never return but wondering if its been long enough to forget what it was I didn't like!
Click to expand...
It's getting back up the entrance that nobody likes (along with washing the kit afterwards) - good trip otherwise
 
JoshW said:
Always had a soft spot for Welsh’s green swallet’s special breed of squalor
Click to expand...
I quite enjoyed Welsh's Green, the only not enjoyable bit was getting pretty cold in the mud & shivering all the way back to the car. Better visited in warmer weather or extra warm layers.
 
bagpuss said:
I quite enjoyed Welsh's Green, the only not enjoyable bit was getting pretty cold in the mud & shivering all the way back to the car. Better visited in warmer weather or extra warm layers.
Click to expand...
Warning about visiting in warmer weather, it gets very very chuffing warm trying to shuffle along the the crawls.

I genuinely do love Welsh’s green, as at least two other forum members will attest to
 
When I did North Hill Swallet, the streamway was alive with leeches - so glad I was wearing gloves!!

Henry's Hole at the bottom of somebody's garden is my favourite collectors piece.
 
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