Slaughter Stream Cave (Wet Sink)

This system near the village of Joyford in the Forest of Dean considerably expanded the horizons of what it might be possible to explore underground in the Forest. Previously the only other systerm of any size in the area was Otter Hole on the banks of the Wye just outside Chepstow. Although a large stream sank at Wet Sink numerous attempts to excavate since the 1950's were abandoned until a determined effort by the JAGA group of the Royal Forest of Dean Caving Club broke through at the base of the deep boulder filled entrance shaft to reach open cave in 1990. After descending a 12 metre pitch the discoverers were able to explore over 12 kilometres of cave passage including a well sculptured streamway and a series of big high level passages. There are still good prospects for further discoveries. Of note was the discovery of a dog's skeleton something like a kilometre from the entrance and the presence of ancient animal bones in other parts of the cave. The water resurges at the Slaughter risings in the river Wye. The only down side about the cave is that it has been subjected to intermittent sewage contamination which can render the streamway rather smelly sometimes. The cave was the subject of a rather over dramatised Channel 4 programme in 2005 in the Extreme Archaeology series.

Otter Hole

Although the entrance had always been open and a large resurgence apparent, the cave was not opened up to cavers until 1970 by the Royal Forest of Dean Caving Club and Gloucester Speleological Group. This probably has something to do with it's location low on the bank of the tidal section of the River Wye in dense woodland at the bottom of a steep hill. The muddy entrance series was explored past some interesting formations to a sump which, it was soon realised, subject to the vagaries of the tide. After some fraught episodes it was also realised that on high spring tides most of the entrance series was completely flooded. Otter Hole is therefore one of the few caves where one has to consult tide tables before planning a trip! Beyond the tidal sump a streamway was followed via a series of climbs and clambers to a second sump which required diving apparatus to pass it. Currently the cave has been explored upstream as far as Sump 7. The cave would be interesting just for the stream passage but, in 1975, a high level dig near Sump 2 entered a large fossil series considerably extending the cave to over 3 kilometres and revealing what is arguably the most beautiful series of cave passages in Britain. I was fortunate enough to be on one of the very early trips into the extension and took a number of photographs of formations that have been subsequently destroyed. Sadly the discoverers felt that the arduous entrance series and tidal sump offered sufficient protection to the cave but this was not so and considerable casual damage was done to the cave until a leader system was introduced. One of the classic chambers in the cave is the Hall of Thirty a veritable forest of multicolourd stalagmite columns.

The resurgence on the banks of the Wye	The entrance	Looking out
A crawl just inside the entrance	Formations in the entrance series	Formations in the entrance series
The sump at low tide	Michael Glanvill swimming across the sump pool	Paul Taylor during a rescue practice
The tidal sump	the ladder climb	The streamway
The streamway
A duck upstream of the climb into the extension	The climb into the extension
	Angled stal	The volcanoes - now destroyed
The upper series just before the Hall of Thirty	Just before the Hall of Thirty	John Elliott at the base of the Hall of Thirty
Hall of Thirty	Hall of Thirty	Hall of Thirty
John and Straws
The Jaws - much muddied and damaged now	Beyond the Camp	Derrick Guy near Tunnels fork
	Cast of a drip pit	Tunnels Left
Drip pits
Terminal chamber	Approaching terminal Chamber and choke	Removing the mud

Scottish Caving    (Animation)	Mendip Caves				Devonshire Caves