Mendip Caving Group

The MCG cave regularly in most UK caving areas and there are occasional overseas trips. Apart from Mendip, the group caves in in Assynt (Scotland), Derbyshire, Devon, South Wales, Portland (Dorset), North Wales, and Yorkshire. Overseas trips include Argentina, Belgium, France, Madagascar, and Spain. In addition, we have members resident in many parts of the world who can provide local advice for intending visitors.

Due to the recent discoveries in Upper Flood Swallet, much of our attention is currently focused on exploring on-going leads in the cave as well as surveying and conservation work. In addition, there is a lot of surface activity such as mapping of the lead mines at Charterhouse which may provide new entrances to the Upper Flood system.

Next formal meetings

As well as informal trips, we have a regular monthly meet at or HQ when more members will be present. This is a good time for beginners to come along. Meet at Nordrach Cottage at 10.00am. Please let us know you are coming and we will arrange helmets and lamps.

Trips planned for 2008

02/02/08 Swildon's Hole - Round Trip

A medium/difficult trip, depending on water levels. Contact Brian Snell for more details or to take part

02/02/08 Swildon's Hole - Upper Series

An easy trip for beginners, or oldies. Contact Martin Rowe for more details or to take part

21/03/08 to 24/03/08 - Caves of Skye

Currently planned for the Easter weekend but the meet could be extended to include the following week

05/04/08 - Upper Flood Swallet

No time for caving as it is the day of the AGM. So, instead, there will be an easy surface walk, tracing out the 3.5km route of the cave below

12/04/08 - Otter Hole

One of the best decorated caves in Britain (after Upper Flood). This cave begins with an awkward muddy crawl followed by a tidal sump (which becomes a duck at low tide, providing the cave is not in flood). A climb to an upper level beyond here enters the decorated section of the cave. A summary can be found on the Royal Forest of Dean Caving Club site

18/04/08 to 20/04/08 - BCRA Cave Technology Symposium

This symposium at the Hunters Lodge, Priddy, is being hosted by members of BCRA's special interest groups: the Cave Surveying Group (CSG), the Cave Radio & Electronics Group (CREG) and the Explosives Users Group (EUG). The event will co-incide with a weekend CSG field meeting. More details on the BCRA website

03/05/08 - Bone Hole (daytime trip)

An easy trip, or moderate if you free-climb. Now that Upper Flood Swallet is well on the way to Cheddar, attention turns to Bone Hole again. Currently the dig has reached below road level. Can it provide the missing link between Upper Flood and Cheddar risings? Contact Bob Templeman for more details or to take part

23/05/08 to 26/05/08 Yorkshire - BPC Gaping Gill winch meet

Easy/medium/difficult - it all depends what you want to do. More info about the Bradford PC winch meet here Contact Mike Richardson for more details or to take part

07/06/08 - Beginners' weekend

Beginners are welcome at any time (more here) but we also have a special weekend for beginners in our meets program. Equipment requirements will be arranged for those who need it and there will be a trip(s) on Saturday and Sunday which will be geared to your abilities. It will be an excellent opportunity to meet other new cavers and enjoy a couple of days at our club house. If you prefer to come just for one day that’s fine, we usually suggest arriving at the cottage at around 10.00am.

05/07/08 - Upper Flood Swallet - 40th birthday party

The entrance to Upper Flood was first discovered after the Great Storm of July 1968. To commemorate this event we are arranging a BBQ and 1960's disco (at Nordrach Cottage - tbc) on 05/07/08. There will even be opportunities to explore the cave earlier in the day, or to join a surface walk

02/08/08 to be confirmed - Gough's Cave (evening trip)

Chris Castle has requested that we defer the trip; we have asked for a rematch for the 7th June. An easy/moderate trip. When/if the Bone Hole dig "goes", is this where the connection will be made? Contact Bob Templeman for more details or to take part

23/08/08 to 31/08/08 - Overseas meet - Vercors, France

Tony K has been doing some translation work for a group organising an event in the Vercors region near Grenoble. They used to do a caving film festival which became quite well known. The 2008 event is on a bigger scale: whole will not be unlike "Hidden Earth" in UK.

The aspect that particularly caught Tony's eye is the pre-rigging of several caves for at least the duration of the event (23rd to 30th August 2008). You will find a list of the caves to be pre-rigged on page 2 of Vercors 2008 Note that the Gouffre Berger will be subject to pre-booking (in May 2008).

The event should be a lot of fun. As a caving region, the Vercors is second to none. To be able to visit a good selection of representative caves without having to bring your own rope, etc.should make for a convenient arrangement! Tony will be pleased to give whatever assistance may be needed if anyone decides to visit the region and/or attend this event. The two official languages of the conference side of the event are French and English.

26/09/08 - 28/09/08 Hidden Earth - the BCRA Conference

Hidden Earth is the UK's annual caving conference, hosted by the British Cave Research Association and the British Caving Association for the benefit of all cavers.

Hidden Earth 2008 will be held from Friday 26 to Sunday 28 September 2008 at Prince Henry's Grammar School, Otley, West Yorkshire. (See map)

04/10/08 - St Cuthbert's Swallet

04/10/08 - Archeology walk

Yvonne has had to postpone the walk due to other committments. For details contact Yvonne Rowe

08/11/08 - Pinetree Pot

08/11/08 - Training Course (tbc)

06/12/08 - Eastwater Cavern

06/12/08 - G.B. Cave

Mendip Caving Group. UK Charity Number 270088. The object of the Group is, for the benefit of the public, the furtherance of all aspects of the exploration, scientific study and conservation of caves and related features. Membership shall be open to anyone over the age of 16 years with an interest in the objects of the Group.

2008 Meets Programme