Castell Cawr Caves

[Ian A]

Location
SH 938 766

Directions
Take the road just by Abergele which runs up the side of Gwrych Castle (by the gate house and I think it is Tan-y-goppa Road) and follow the road up and along the front of Gopa Wood. Halfway along (or perhaps a tad more) is a right turn (a track) which you can drive up. Go up there to the double bend and park. There is a footpath/track leading down hill (on the right of the road) towards a cliff face (hidden by trees) â€" the caves are in that face.

Access
One Cave is gated the other(s) is not. The permission requirement is unknown.

Suggested Equipment
None

Length
Cave #1 ~ 50 feet
Cave #2 ~ unknown

Flood risk
None known

Cave Attributes
Small & phreatic. Some formations but mostly damaged.

Description
There are several caves here although two of them are insignificant and nothing more than just a grotto.

Of the other two, one is high on the cliff face and is, in any event, gated.

The ungated cave is also a little way up the cliff face (about 25 feet) but is easily reachable. Although this cave has two entrances, only one is really accessible. The entrance is little more than a hands & knees crawl and quickly brings you to a small chamber full of spiders. Passing this you come to another small chamber and then the passage turns left and becomes a crawl.

Just here there is evidence of substantial stalagmites/stalactites which have been broken away (seemingly a good number of years ago) to allow cavers to enter the passage beyond.

Just past this crawl area is a significant chamber of good size which is silted and has two apparent passages running off, both of which are 100% silted.

There is evidence of an abandoned dig here.

Unexplored Passages
The two silted passages are unexplored as they require digging.

Digs
An (apparently) abandoned dig exists in the main chamber

Links
http://chrislad.worldonline.co.uk/page50.html

[Ian A]

[Ian A]

The entrance




Just inside the entrance looking inwards




The abandoned nest and a couple of spiders in the first (small) chamber




The crawl passage at point "3" on the map




The area of broken stalagmites (marked as "4" on the map)




The "Grave Cut" in the main chamber (the items in the picture were in situ)




In the main chamber