Caving in the United Kingdom

The four major caving areas of the United Kingdom are North Yorkshire, South Wales, Derbyshire, and the Mendips.

There are about 4,000 active cavers in the UK and nearly twenty times that number who attend instructor-led courses each year in caves around the country.

[2][3] In the 19th century, John Birkbeck explored potholes in Yorkshire, notably Gaping Gill in 1842 and Alum Pot in 1847–48, returning there in the 1870s.

[4] By the latter years of the 19th century, caving was established as a sport in the British Isles but remained largely the preserve of a very few adventurers and scientists.

During the Second World War, Bob Leakey discovered the 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) long Mossdale Caverns north of Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales.

Neil Moss was the victim of a famous caving accident after descending a narrow unexplored shaft in Peak Cavern in Derbyshire 1959.

British cave divers continued to pioneer explorations at Wookey Hole in the Mendips, Keld Head in the Yorkshire Dales and Pozo Azul in Spain.

In 1979, watched by 20 million television viewers, The Underground Eiger showed a world record-breaking cave dive of 6,000 ft (1,800 m) made by Geoff Yeadon and Oliver Statham.

[15][16] These organisations have around 1,000 volunteer rescuers available with specialised equipment to provide regional police forces with the capabilities to conduct rescues in caves and disused mines in the British Isles.

The rescuers are all experienced cavers who have undertaken training in underground rescue techniques and many have additional specialist skills such as casualty care or cave diving.

[31] There are also projects that are attempting to assemble online maps and catalogues from repositories of surveys by overlaying them on satellite imagery: The most widely referenced guidebooks for caving the UK are: