Caves in the UK and Ireland

Caves, mines and other underground places to explore beneath the British Landscape.

Clearwell Caves

‘Underneath the mysterious Royal Forest of Dean lies something spectacular and unseen, an unfathomable natural cave system that has been mined for more than 4,500 years’.

Dan Yr Ogof

Dan Yr Ogof includes several caves open to the public, well lit and with excellent audio tours explaining the story of the discovery of the caves and various geological features. Two of the caves are large and impressive, there is also a small ‘bone cave’ in which prehistoric remains were found.

Fairies Cave

Fairies Cave is a limestone cave of unkown extent, the site of several springs near to Pool Bank.

Holy Well Cave

Holy Well, also known as Fairy Cave is a small cave system in Halecat

White Scar Cave

White Scar Cave is a very large series of limestone caves and potholes beneath Ingleborough and is open to the public.

Great Douk Cave

Great Douk Cave is situated in a large hollow close to Ingleborough that is accessible via a steep footpath.

Cathedral Quarry

A disused slate quarry that is every bit as impressive as a natural cave as it’s industrial past crumbles and the place returns to nature.

Yordas Cave

The name Yordas is derived from the Norse ‘Jord ass’, which means ‘earth stream’.

Thors Cave

Thor’s Cave has been formed over thousands of years by the effects of water and wind. The name may be a corruption of tors (meaning hills), and some people think it comes from Thor, the Norse god of thunder.

Gaping Gill

Gaping Gill, one of the most impressive natural wonders in the UK, is a vast cave system located on the slopes of Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales.

Dog Holes Cave

Dog Holes Cave is a small pothole in the karst landscape of Warton Crag, with interesting geology and perhaps archaeology.

Ogof Twn Siôn Cati

Said to be the hideout of the outlaw Twn Siôn Cati the ‘Welsh Robin Hood’, Ogof Twn Siôn Cati is a small cave on the steep, wooded side of Dinas in the Gwenffred-Dinas Nature Reserve.

The Hermit's Cave

The Hermit’s Cave, Giant’s Cave or Clutter’s Cave or Waum’s Cave as it is variously known is a small quarry into a rock outcrop formed from precambrian pillow lava now found up on the hills near British Camp hillfort.

Blue John Cavern

The spectacular Blue John Cavern is famous as the place where the mineral Blue John was found and mined, a form of Flourite which can be seen in various places throughout the cavern.

Carreg Cennen Castle Caves

Really interesting ‘secret passage’ and caves at Carreg Cennen Castle.

Janet's Cave

A tiny cave beside a waterfall that is said to have been the home of a local witch.

County Pot

A pothole by the Ease Gill - for serious potholers.

Elephant Point and the Three Chimneys

A sea-cave where a series of cliff-arches has eroded away.

Horseshoe Cave

Horseshoe Cave is an intriguing natural formation located in the limestone region of the Yorkshire Dales,

Jubilee Cave

The Palaeolithic caves of the Yorkshire Dales belong to a major regional group of which Jubilee Cave is an important example due to the survival of substantial intact deposits both inside and outside the cave.