Derbyshire Caving Club

12/01/2025

A busy weekend for the club, and our official start to the new year!
Saturday saw club members visit the main streamway beyond the show cave at The Devil's Arse, Castleton... Whilst it was -6 outside, it was warmer submerged in the water underground!

Today we played host to Craven Pothole club for a trip to Alderley. 20 cavers split into two groups, and starting from different mines, meeting half way somewhere under the Macclesfield road!

Make sure to check their website out for a trip into Gaping Gill, later in the year!

26/08/2024

Once again, we are preparing for our bi-annual open weekend!

Saturday and Sunday the 7/8th September are the dates to put in your diaries!

You can book here now, and as always, we leave limited places for those to turn up on the day.

​https://www.derbyscc.org.uk/alderley/open_day_intro.php

27/05/2024

The Derbyshire Caving Club recently had a day out under the alien landscape of Parys Mountain, Anglesey.
Perhaps one of the more unusual mines, with evidence of some of the first mining from the Bronze age period, right up to fairly recent times, it has seen a long history, and produced huge amounts of copper.

Worth a note are the unusual conditions provided by sulphorous minerals, providing acidic water below a ph of 4! This in turns creates the perfect conditions for "extremophile" bacteria, and even turns copper carbonates back to high grade copper when all the conditions are met!

A big well done to Sam(2) for her first propper adventure underground! I think she found this quite the challenge!

Thanks to Sam, Kelly and Pete for the photos :-)

14/05/2024

An example of some of the wonderful pieces that are still being mined and worked at Castleton. If you have not visited the caves and mines there, we suggest you pop along for a great day (or two) out!

03/05/2024

Head along for a magical experience underground folks, The UKs deepest pothole!

12/04/2024

Save the date! Saturday and Sunday the 27th & 28th April 2024, just two weeks away!

Book your tickets now to guarantee a place on one of our many tours in Engine Vein over that weekend :-)

See you there!

05/03/2024

Well details are a little thin on the ground for our last action-packed weekend, but suffice to say, we stayed over at the lovely Magpie Mine cottage (PDMHS), and had a winched trip down a deep shaft on the Saturday, along with a little gem of a mine explore on Sunday.

Brilliant weekend and thank you to Helen, Pete and our shaft guard John for sitting out in the cold for x hours both days!

05/02/2024

The club once again donned their caving gear and headed up to Derbyshire.
This time we hit Snake Mine, which is becoming a regular favorite.

Not for the faint of heart, this mine has various options in, but they are all vertical, and so with over 300m of rope, we rigged them all!

The mine has some nice artifacts left from miners long gone, and some rather nice features too.

All had a thoroughly good trip!

Photo courtesy of Rob Stevenson.

25/01/2024

Lots of people explore the Masson system, and I am sure many have been to the show caves too. If you have, or are interested, might be worth checking the latest edition of ACID out! Also give Peak District National Park a like at the same time :-)

The new ACID magazine is out now! 🏺💎

Read the annual round-up of archaeological highlights in and the during 2023...

👉 https://bit.ly/DerbysACID

24/01/2024

The club had quite the active weekend! We had a group that headed up to Yorkshire, for some adventures exploring mines. For those of us who couldn't make it, we decided to venture into Peak Cavern - "The Devil's Arse".

A maze of beautiful phreatic passages and vadose canyons, extending some 26km, and linking to Speedwell, James Hall Mine and TItan, the UK's deepest natural shaft.

A thoroughly successful weekend!

10/12/2023

We had a kind member of public pick up a bag on Glaze Hill last week. He contacted the caving club because the bag was found near one of our digs.

If you have lost a bag with a coat, and would like to claim it back, then please feel free to contact us here via a message, so that we can arrange to return it to you.

04/12/2023

Today is St. Barbara's day. She is the patron saint of artillerymen and miners, and on this day, European miners would historically place an Icon of Barbara at the entrance to mines and remember those men who died at their place of work.

12/11/2023

It was time to swap caving clobber for our best outfits this weekend!
Members and friends of the DCC got together for our annual dinner dance, where cavers young and old get together for an evening celebrating another year.
We have sadly lost a couple of much loved and valued members this year, but they will live on in our hearts and memories, and will always remain a part of the spirit and history that is the Derbyshire Caving Club!

Thanks to Ed Coghlan for the photo.

08/11/2023

Our newest recruit, Jenny gets to work and shows off the new staging and ore chute in one of our current digs at the Edge.

This is a small mine, largely ignored for many years. It's slow progress at the moment but proving worthwhile, with some interesting archeological finds.

We are hoping this shaft reveals more hidden treasures within the depths of Glaze Hill.

03/10/2023

Club members got together for a fantastic weekend of underground exploring.
We found ourselves following the many passages, tunnels and shafts that can be found scattered around the beautiful Nenthead countryside. On a single day, we travelled about 10km underground!

3 days of solid activities for most of us, a pub meal on the Friday evening, and a great meal served by Rob on the Saturday in Garrigill village hall.

Thanks to James, Callum, Jane, Ed, Sally for the photos! Far too many to pick!

25/09/2023

12/09/2023

This is an incredible feat. Involving over 200 rescuers, this caver was in trouble with an acute medical condition over 1km underground which is descended using many short pitches, in all making this potentially a very technically challenging rescue.

Well done to all the volunteers who make cave rescue a reality!

We hope this caver recovers quickly.

https://caverescue.eu/news/tuesday-12th-september-2023-0030h-cest/?fbclid=IwAR2QTCPZBuYGSBgbN6smspIrHAp5E7iLm6Z3SFNEab1Occ4A-UhQL0MthBc

The stretchered casualty has been successfully brought out of Morca Cave. The casualty will be transferred to hospital after a medical assessment.