Hi folks, I'm Neil and I live in Cumbria. Never been caving before but I do a lot of mine exploration (there are hundreds of disused mines to explore up here in the Lake District). Mines are great, and there's plenty to see, but I'm feeling very strongly drawn towards caving..

Welcome!!

Well not a lot of difference between the two - presumably you have the kit
necessary to get into mines therefore could do caves aswell - in many respects caving might be a bit safer. I was up in Keswick recently walking - went along cat bells to where there was a mine on a rake - followed the rake down into the valley where there was a ore washing area and the lower entrance to the mine was an round oil drum type - any idea what the mine was called??

Hi Neil, and welcome to the forum - have you seen the Croesor-Rhosydd mine trip article? Probably more similar to the things you usually get up to, but as Sarge says, not a huge amount of difference between the techniques used in mines and caves.

Many of the caves around here (Derbyshire) are a mixture of mined and natural passage, and you'll often find yourself descending minedshafts to reach natural passage at the bottom.

You can't be that far from the Dales, where there's plenty of great caves for you to cut your teeth on, but it's a good idea to buy a decent guidebook and heed the weather forcast as many of them can flood suddenly (ulike most mines) and the consequences of that are of course, not pretty.

Well not a lot of difference between the two - presumably you have the kit

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Yeah, I've got most of the gear. The only thing I don't have is my own SRT equipment.. having my own would come in handy.

I was up in Keswick recently walking - went along cat bells to where there was a mine on a rake - followed the rake down into the valley where

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Sounds like it could be Yewthwaite Mine on the Western flank of Cat Bells, near Littletown. It's an old lead mine.. from the 1800s (I think). I've never been there before, but I'll be going on a trip there on 30th March with a local mine exploration society I'm a member of. There's another mine in that area - Goldscope Mine - which is very old (1500s) and there's plenty of examples of industrial archaeology to be found down there, if you like that sort of thing.

Hi Neil, and welcome to the forum - have you seen the Croesor-Rhosydd mine trip article?

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Had a gander at it before, very interesting and a bit of an eyeopener - I've never had to traverse an underground pool on an innertube before Most of the mines I've been down in Cumbria are ore mines, so they're made up of twisty passages as opposed to huge slate caverns.

You can't be that far from the Dales, where there's plenty of great caves for you to cut your teeth on, but it's a good idea to buy a decent guidebook and heed the weather forcast as many of them can flood suddenly (ulike most mines) and the consequences of that are of course, not pretty.

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That's good advice. Especially about the weather. I'm only a couple of hours drive away from the Dales.. I guess that'd be a good place to start. I'll look into getting a guidebook.