Recreationalcaving in the United Kingdom dates back to the mid-19th century. The four majorcaving areas of the United Kingdom areNorth Yorkshire,South Wales,Derbyshire, and theMendips. Minor areas includeDevon,Forest of Dean,North Wales, and theScottish Highlands.
Caving grew in popularity in the 1950s and 60s through participation in caving clubs. There are about 4,000 active cavers in the UK and nearly twenty times that number who attend instructor-led courses each year in caves around the country. In addition, many tourists visitshow caves such asWookey Hole Caves.
Cave diving is a niche technical area of caving practised in the UK since the 1930s. This skill enables cavers to explore water-filledcave passages in Britain, and around the world. In recent years, British cave divers have been called on internationally forcave rescues and recoveries.
Before modern caving developed,John Beaumont wrote detailed descriptions of someMendip caves in 1681,[1] and in 1780 John Hutton described some of the caves aroundIngleborough, which was to popularise caves to those seeking thepicturesque.[2][3]
In the 19th century,John Birkbeck explored potholes inYorkshire, notablyGaping Gill in 1842 andAlum Pot in 1847–48, returning there in the 1870s. In the mid-1880s,Herbert E. Balch began exploringWookey Hole Caves and in the 1890s Balch was introduced to thecaves of the Mendip Hills. FrenchmanÉdouard-Alfred Martel reached the underground lake ofMarble Arch inNorthern Ireland in 1895. In Yorkshire, he made the second descent, after Birkbeck in 1842, into the pothole of Gaping Gill, reaching the Main Chamber, 170 feet lower than Birkbeck had ventured.[4]
By the latter years of the 19th century, caving was established as a sport in the British Isles but remained largely the preserve of a very few adventurers and scientists.[5][6] One of the oldest established clubs,Yorkshire Ramblers' Club, was founded in 1892 and began exploring the Marble Arch Caves from 1907.[7] TheUniversity of Bristol Spelæological Society was founded in 1919. By the 1930s around 30 caving clubs existed.[8]Eli Simpson formed theBritish Speleological Association (BSA) in 1935. In the same year, theCave Rescue Organisation was established, the first such organisation in the world.[9]Jack Sheppard undertook the firstcave diving explorations in the world inWookey Hole Caves in the 1930s usingstandard diving dress.
During the Second World War,Bob Leakey discovered the 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) longMossdale Caverns north ofGrassington in theYorkshire Dales. After the war,Graham Balcombe formed theCave Diving Group in 1946.[10] The Cave Research Group of Great Britain separated from BSA in 1948.[8]Jim Eyre was one of the first European cavers to explore thecaves of Asia.
Interest in caving grew rapidly in the 1950s and 60s.Neil Moss was the victim of a famous caving accident after descending a narrow unexplored shaft inPeak Cavern in Derbyshire 1959. This period saw the formation of more clubs, regional councils to manage cave access, and the National Association of Caving in 1968. The 7th International Congress of Speleology of theInternational Union of Speleology (UIS) was held in the UK in 1977 at which Britishspeleological achievements were presented to delegates from around the world.[8][11]Gordon Warwick became a vice president of the UIS, taking a major role at its international conferences.
British cave divers continued to pioneer explorations at Wookey Hole in the Mendips, Keld Head in the Yorkshire Dales and Pozo Azul in Spain. Innovations in techniques and equipment in the 1970s, 1980s and onwards improved safety and made more advanced exploration possible. In 1979, watched by 20 million television viewers,The Underground Eiger showed a world record-breaking cave dive of 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) made by Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham. Two years later,Martyn Farr established a new world record for underwater cave penetration in the Bahamas.[12]
Because of the long and active history of caving, almost every entrance with surface access in Britain has been fully explored, so the majority of new discoveries take place after months and sometimes years ofcave digging. Notable recent discoveries since 1995 includeTitan, the largest shaft in Britain, andOgof Draenen, the second-longest cave in Britain. Fulfilling an idea first proposed in 1968, theThree Counties System, which was first explored in 1898, was proven to be interconnected in 2010–11.[13] At the end of 2024 and during 2025, Redhouse Swallet, a 1,800-metre (5,900 ft) cave in theForest of Dean, was extended to over 10 kilometres (6.21 miles).[14]
In 2018, there were up to 4,000 regular cavers in the UK and about 70,000 people who went on instructor-led courses into caves in the Yorkshire Dales.[15]
The four majorcaving areas of the United Kingdom areNorth Yorkshire,South Wales,Derbyshire, and theMendips.[15] Minor areas includeDevon,Forest of Dean,North Wales, and theScottish Highlands.
There are a number ofshow caves open to visitors in the main caving areas, includingWookey Hole Caves onMendip,Dan-yr-Ogof inSouth Wales,Peak Cavern in thePeak District,Ingleborough Cave in theYorkshire Dales, andMarble Arch Caves inCounty Fermanagh.
TheBritish Caving Association is the national body for caving in the United Kingdom. There are a number of regional caving organisations in the UK such as theCambrian Caving Council. Many caving clubs exist, which often run expeditions abroad, for example to particular territories such asMatienzo orPicos.
| Founded | 1967; 59 years ago (1967) |
|---|---|
| Type | Registered Charity |
Region served | British Isles |
| Services | Cave Rescue |
| Peter Dennis[16] | |
Key people | Bill WhitehouseMBE[16] |
| Website | www |
TheBritish Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) was established in 1967 and is the coordinating body for fifteencave rescue organisations in the British Isles, including theCave Rescue Organisation, theUpper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association and theIrish Cave Rescue Organisation.[17][18] These organisations have around 1,000 volunteer rescuers available with specialised equipment to provide regional police forces with the capabilities to conduct rescues in caves and disused mines in the British Isles. The rescuers are all experienced cavers who have undertaken training in underground rescue techniques and many have additional specialist skills such as casualty care or cave diving.[19]
Through BCRC, British cave divers, particularlyRichard Stanton,John Volanthen, Jason Mallison and Chris Jewell have been called on internationally for cave rescues and recoveries.[20][21][22] These include theAlpazat cave rescue in Mexico in 2004,[23] France in 2010,[24] Ireland in 2011,[25] Norway in 2006 and 2014,[26] and theTham Luang cave rescue in Thailand in 2018.[27][28][29]
Many clubs hold extensive libraries recording decades of exploration in terms of surveys and logbooks, as well as newsletters, reports and books detailing the history of cave explorations both within their nearby areas and abroad on expeditions. Other information is in the form of extensive personal archives that have been bequeathed to the community.
Some areas also have extensive databases of diagrams and other survey documents for particular areas.[30] The following libraries are open to club members, some of which are also open to non-members.
Cave surveys have historically been kept by the person who drew them (with the measurement data often lost), or deposited in a club library. They are seldom published (except in reduced form in a guidebook) and can be difficult to obtain because there is no central catalogue listing who holds what.
In about 2012 a central repository for survey data and drawn-up surveys was set up by the BCA and now contains a significant amount of UK (and some foreign, from expeditions) survey data.[33]There are also projects that are attempting to assemble online maps and catalogues from repositories of surveys by overlaying them on satellite imagery:
The most widely referenced guidebooks for caving the UK are:
Two divers from the Cave Rescue Organisation – one of whom has extensive experience of the Cuetzalan cave system – flew to Mexico from London on Tuesday morning.
British rescue divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, called in from Wales
The British team had been flown in as part of an inter-governmental request, due to their international expertise.
Rick Stanton world-renowned for his rescue and recovery work in caves ... done a recovery there in 2006 ... received a request for help from the Norwegian police, and two weeks later, he and two other British divers, John Volanthen and Jason Mallinson, clambered into Steinugleflaget
Rick Stanton, 57, and John Volanthen, 47, who are among the best rescue divers in the world, have taken part in similar operations in Ireland, Norway and France. Mr Stanton once helped to save British cavers who had been trapped underground in Mexico for more than a week. "They are two of the best," said Martin Grass, chairman of the Cave Diving Group