Ogof Daren Cilau

Location
Grid reference: SO 205 153

Altitude: 400m



The entrance is in the opposite end of the Llangattock escarpment from Agen Allwedd. It is a 10-15 minute walk along the escarpment from Whitewalls.

There is a car park near the cave but it has a history of break-ins.

Access
The usual entrance to the cave is not gated. The Ogof Cnwc entrance is gated with keys held by Chelsea Spelaeological Society.

In (very) cold weather the water in the entrance can freeze, making entry or exit difficult or impossible.

Entrance Series to The Big Chamber Nowhere Near the Entrance
The entrance series of Daren Cilau is renowned for being constricted, wet, and arduous. This 500-600m of cave is a challenging trip in itself for the beginner to intermediate caver and is a serious obstacle to even very experienced cavers when returning from long trips in the system. The fun begins with a flat-out squeeze in water and continues through a variety of different passage shapes. Notable obstacles include the Vice (an awkward extended squeeze), the S-bend (a tricky and damp manoeuvre for cavers with long legs), and the calcite squeezes (claustrophobic and moist).

At the end of the entrance series a walking-size passage leads left to a choke; this can be bypassed via an oxbow. The regained passage can be followed to a scramble up boulders to reach another passage perpendicular to the former. Left leads to some minor pretties, and right leads to the (old) Main Chamber, but the route to the rest of the cave is around an inconspicuous boulder in the wall ahead. This is an annoying crawl which leads to a climb down through a boulder choke into the start of Jigsaw Passage.

Jigsaw Passage continues for a considerable distance along walking-size passage. Approximately half-way along the passage is interrupted by an inconvenient squeeze: the Wriggle. After the squeeze an inlet is passed on the right, but Jigsaw Passage carries on until it ends abruptly at the aptly-named Big Chamber Nowhere Near the Entrance (BCNNTE). This chamber is bigger than it first appears and contains a log book for recording trips.

From here, routes can be followed left towards Epocalypse Way and Ogof Cnwc; right towards the Time Machine, the Hard Rock Cafe, and the main part of the cave; or straight ahead to the minor Loop Route.

Epocalypse Way to Ogof Cnwc
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The Hard Rock Cafe
From the BCNNTE, the route to the main part of the cave is not obvious. From the log book, climb up a little to the right and follow the passage/chamber around to the right. Eventually one reaches a large slope of boulders. A well-worn route to the top (doubling back towards the north) leads to a series of mostly low passage. The route is mostly straightforward crawling, with only one notable traverse where the floor drops away. Eventually a small hole on the right is encountered which leads to a climb down into the large Valentine's chamber. The hole is easy to miss and cavers often have to reverse a short distance when the passage closes down.

Valentine's Chamber is the start of the large passages that dominate Daren's central section. The way on is downwards through its lowest point to another climb down into Preliminary Passage. Easy walking over boulders leads to the fixed Ladder (which deserves a capital letter!) The pitch is at least 20m, broken into two sections. A (muddy) lifeline rope and a tackle-hauling rope are in place at time of writing. (A warning for cavers tempted to climb without a lifeline: the ladder has an awkward dog-leg over a ledge half-way up that is not obvious from the bottom. The top section of the ladder is slightly overhanging and tends to give cavers a sense of vertigo.) Near the top of the ladder is a large selection of mud figures created by bored cavers waiting for people to climb.

From the top of the ladder the passage leads left to an exposed traverse (rope in place). Cowstails are strongly recommended. After the traverse a left turn leads to a low crawl and then to the top of the roped climbs. These two pitches are awkward (particularly the lower one) and the in-situ ropes are welcome. Cavers unused to these climbs sometimes find clipping in to the ropes with cowstails to be helpful. This is however the last notable obstacle for some time.

The caver is now in very large passage. (It is worth noting the point at which this is entered as it is easy to miss the climbs up on the way back.) The passage continues to the left and eventually a reddish stream enters from the right (Red River Passage). The passage carries on downstream, getting bigger and bigger until it reaches the impressive Time Machine, the largest cave passage so far discovered in Britain.

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The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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