Ogof Nant Rhin

[Kahula]

Hi, i'm thinking about doing a trip to Ogof Nant Rhin next week. Does anyone know if you can get to it at the moment with the road works? If so could anyone advise where I could park as I believe the layby may have gone?
Many thanks Nicky 

 

[sion]

As far as I know the only two routes are to either walk down the road from Brynmawr to the normal parking spot or scale the gorge up from the Clogwyn entrance.
Its less dodgy and a lot less effort dropping down from Gam and srt back out!

 

[mudman]

You could park at Blackrock and go through the underpass (if it's still open) and walk down from there. However, I don't think there is official pedestrian access at the moment.

 

[Clive G]

You could park at Blackrock and go through the underpass (if it's still open) and walk down from there. However, I don't think there is official pedestrian access at the moment.

The underpass near where the Old Drum and Monkey Inn was situated is supposed to have been converted to a bat flyway using concrete rings. I haven't seen anything in the road-widening plans which explain how pedestrians will be able to cross the road here for passing from the northern to the southern side of the gorge via the Devil's Bridge. This is very important for access to Ogof Capel, Shakespeare's Cave and the Pwll y Cwm riverbed pothole, which provides diving access to Daren Cilau, having been dug open and first passed by a diver from the cave system inside the mountain to the gorge.

Ogof Nant Rhin is some distance upstream and the real access point was the lay-by 2/3 of the way up the Clydach Gorge, heading towards Brynmawr. A climb over the fence and descent to the river would have taken you straight to the cave entrance, almost directly below the bottom end of the parking area.

I've provided to Phil Baker of Costains, via John Hill of Brynmawr (22/5/15 12:13) and, previously, a locally based caver (10/3/14 18:30), extracts from my guidebook to the caves of the Clydach Gorge, describing the location of and access to the various cave entrances in the Clydach Gorge, in order that these can be preserved during and after the roadworks, but I have yet to hear anything back in return.

 

[rhychydwr1]

You could park at Blackrock and go through the underpass (if it's still open) and walk down from there. However, I don't think there is official pedestrian access at the moment.

[snip]

extracts from my guidebook to the caves of the Clydach Gorge,

Has it been published?

 

[Clive G]

You could park at Blackrock and go through the underpass (if it's still open) and walk down from there. However, I don't think there is official pedestrian access at the moment.

[snip]

extracts from my guidebook to the caves of the Clydach Gorge,

Has it been published?

The precursor is the chapter I co-authored with Pete Smart on The Mynydd Llangattwg Cave Systems for Limestones and caves of Wales: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/earth-and-environmental-science/geomorphology-and-physical-geography/limestones-and-caves-wales

Unfortunately, Castle Cary Press/Mendip Publishing went bust without publishing the Llangattock guidebook when the text was completed, so I'm going to be releasing this (updated) independently on the back of the Llangattock caving story and South Wales industrial and transport history books that I've also now written, which I'm aiming to publish from 2016.

 

[Kahula]

Thanks for the advice, we didn't make it last week but hope to go in the next week or two. Think we will go down Gam and back out of there too.

 

[adrian paniwnyk]

Yes the Pont Gam entrance seems like a good bet - but I'm slightly biased having helped to dig it out quite
a few years a go now. Also helped dig out the original larger bottom entrance in the gorge with  Toby Stewart.
He originally pushed the original very tight bottom entrance in the gorge but said he needed a larger entrance
when he put on a bit of weight! 

 

[chunky]

Absolute corker of a trip, though it did feel just a little bit wrong heading back in after exiting in to the gorge!

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

 

[Caver Keith]

Or how about not worrying about if you can get in or where you may, or may not, be able to park the car by staying at home in the warm and dry with a nice cup of tea and mince pie and watching a video?

Speed Caving in Ogof Pont Gam only lasts a couple of minutes and can be found on YouTube at https://youtu.be/0T47UYonH6U.