Looking for a cave to visit during my brief trip back to the UK

[Luke J]

Hello!

A few years ago I posted here determined to finally do caving while I was back in the UK (thank you to everyone who replied and sorry for PMs I missed). I ended up doing a try caving day in the dales in Alum Pot, and I had a brilliant time. I loved the tight squeezes (of course, the cheese press), the view was amazing, the rope sections were interesting, and I even loved the extra bit I did afterwards going through a watery tunnel. I'm so glad I got what I wanted out of trying caving and absolutely want to do more.

That's why I'm looking for advice again, and this time for the over a week I'm spending with family in Anglesey. Last time I kind of made my UK trip hell for myself by planning to much, and doing things like Alum Pot which required taking the earliest possible train with the only possible set of connections to make it from Wigan in a day, and practically speaking I only made it back from the kindness of one of the other cavers driving me home while I failed to stay awake. I'll be with a family member who can drive, which will be helpful, but I obviously don't want to abuse that and regardless I'm hoping to not go nearly as far this time to make the trip happen.

I'll be in Anglesey from around the 15th of June till the 24th of June. I won't have any gear ready nor have any qualifications, which complicates options a bit since I still want to keep it on the cheap. I'm fine with vertical stuff, but honestly my biggest love was the tight tunnels. I'm plenty happy with water too, and can't see myself being bothered by an abundance of mud. That said I'm not a lover of bugs. Won't let them stop me though. I'm just happy to join some folks on a casual day out pushing it in some cool caves!

Please let me know any good places to look at or any people I should contact. I'm really looking forward to finally going caving again, and the last thing I want is to make it a really expensive and difficult trip to weigh down on a fun trip with new friends. Also happy to hear about any options around Wigan too! Not planning on it, but I do also have a week there and if it's not going to be another really difficult journey, then the more caves the merrier!

Cheers,
Luke

 

[Badlad]

I suggest you contact UCET, a north Wales based club, who are very welcoming and have a good programme of taking folk caving in North Wales. That would save you a fair bit of travelling.

 

[Luke J]

I suggest you contact UCET, a north Wales based club, who are very welcoming and have a good programme of taking folk caving in North Wales. That would save you a fair bit of travelling.

Going through the messages I missed from last time, Steph recommended them too. Told me to email Jon Joyce to see about working something out, so waiting on a reply on that. Cheers for confirming they're the right folk for the area

 

[davel]

Not much in the way of caves in north west Wales, but plenty of disused metalliferous mines and underground slate quarries.

There is a major copper mining area at Parys Mountain on Anglesey with workings dating from the Bronze Age though to the Victorian period. You might care to look at the Parys Underground Group website if you want to get underground there. For a more family-friendly location there is the Great Orme Mines Museum at Llandudno.

Some of the underground slate quarries are open access, though I would suggest you look for people you could go with to make the best of a visit, either on this forum or on Buddle Pit.

 

[Luke J]

Not much in the way of caves in north west Wales, but plenty of disused metalliferous mines and underground slate quarries.

There is a major copper mining area at Parys Mountain on Anglesey with workings dating from the Bronze Age though to the Victorian period. You might care to look at the Parys Underground Group website if you want to get underground there. For a more family-friendly location there is the Great Orme Mines Museum at Llandudno.

Some of the underground slate quarries are open access, though I would suggest you look for people you could go with to make the best of a visit, either on this forum or on Buddle Pit.

It's a shame but makes sense. I've not looked much into mines really but I found some things that looked pretty appealing for tight crawls and odd traversal.

I'm not sure how much I can do at Parys, although I can definitely get to it no problem. The site has some missing parts to the image gallery. The museum doesn't quite look like my sort of thing though, and sadly my family want nothing to do with caves and the like

I didn't know about Buddle Pit though. That looks like a great resource. I still think I'd much prefer a proper cave to a mine, but there's certain a lot of them and it's a good option to put some feelers out for. Thanks.

 

[Cantclimbtom]

... ...I didn't know about Buddle Pit though. That looks like a great resource. I still think I'd much prefer a proper cave to a mine... ...

Don't say that in front of the Buddlepit folks, they'd tar and feather you

There are some great mine trips in Wales including a lot of srt, crawls and water, quite like caves. Lots of the mineral lodes are close to vertical so the mined out sections "stopes" can be big vertical fissures requiring rope work. How much depends on which trip, so anything from no ropes required to a shaft where a 100m rope won't be enough to get to the bottom. Just don't let all the history, artefacts and grand scenery put you off.

 

[Badlad]

Poachers and ODB are great caving trips. If you've only time for one or two trips, you'll be fine in the North Wales limestone. No need to go mining.

 

[Lankyman]

It's just over 30 years since I had a trip down the Rhyd Alyn mine to the Milwr Tunnel (Sea Level Tunnel) and it remains a standout experience. If you can get a visit then I'd highly recommend it. If it's still the same setup then no SRT gear is needed as it's all on fixed iron ladders. I arranged access through the North Wales Caving Club and one of their members (Mike Smith) showed us around. Some of the chambers are stunning and there's a big locomotive still standing on the rails. Getting back upstream against the flow in the tunnel was quite hard work!

Milwr Tunnel – Subterranea Britannica

Subterranea Britannica is a society devoted to the study and investigation of man-made (including Nuclear Bunkers) and man-used underground places.

www.subbrit.org.uk

 

[Luke J]

Don't say that in front of the Buddlepit folks, they'd tar and feather you

There are some great mine trips in Wales including a lot of srt, crawls and water, quite like caves. Lots of the mineral lodes are close to vertical so the mined out sections "stopes" can be big vertical fissures requiring rope work. How much depends on which trip, so anything from no ropes required to a shaft where a 100m rope won't be enough to get to the bottom. Just don't let all the history, artefacts and grand scenery put you off.

Haha, fair enough. Looking more into it, I've seen some cool mines about I'd love to visit. Pretty surprised by some of them honestly, knowing people had to go through them so much. I'll have pay them more attention with how many are about.

 

[Luke J]

Poachers and ODB are great caving trips. If you've only time for one or two trips, you'll be fine in the North Wales limestone. No need to go mining.

I saw Poachers as an option, yeah. Might be going to it. Exciting to hear it's worth it.

 

[Luke J]

It's just over 30 years since I had a trip down the Rhyd Alyn mine to the Milwr Tunnel (Sea Level Tunnel) and it remains a standout experience. If you can get a visit then I'd highly recommend it. If it's still the same setup then no SRT gear is needed as it's all on fixed iron ladders. I arranged access through the North Wales Caving Club and one of their members (Mike Smith) showed us around. Some of the chambers are stunning and there's a big locomotive still standing on the rails. Getting back upstream against the flow in the tunnel was quite hard work!

Milwr Tunnel – Subterranea Britannica

Subterranea Britannica is a society devoted to the study and investigation of man-made (including Nuclear Bunkers) and man-used underground places.

www.subbrit.org.uk

Didn't know about that one. I'm not as big on the sight seeing side of things but looking at those pictures, I've got to admit that's pretty cool. Surprised some of that was never removed. No SRT is a plus too for practicality.

 

[Lankyman]

Didn't know about that one. I'm not as big on the sight seeing side of things but looking at those pictures, I've got to admit that's pretty cool.

It's definitely not a sight seeing (tourist) trip. Our 'guide' was there as a condition of access. Imagine if you'd never been in the Three Counties system and you wanted to enjoy the classic Lancaster to County through trip and someone from the Red Rose offered to show you through. You still have to be a competent caver.

 

[cavemanmike]

OHA is a North Wales classic and sporty