Caving in the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The four major caving areas of the United Kingdom are in North Yorkshire, South Wales, Derbyshire, and Mendips. Minor areas include Devon, North Wales, and Grampian.

One of the oldest established clubs, University of Bristol Spelæological Society, was founded in 1919.

Probably the first cave diving explorations in the world took place in Wookey Hole Caves in the 1930s using standard diving dress.

Due to the long and active history of caving, almost every entrance with surface access has been fully explored, so the majority of new discoveries take place underground after months and sometimes years of cave digging.

Notable recent discoveries since 1995 include Titan, the largest shaft in Britain, and Ogof Draenen, the second longest cave in Britain.

[edit] List of caving resources (libraries and newsletter archives)

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. Often, apart from the small reproductions in guidebooks, these are the only places where the surveys of caves can be found.