Wet Sink/Slaughter Stream Cave

Location


Grid Reference: |15|4&dp=904&bd=useful_information&loc=GB:51.82036:-2.60785:14|SO582137|SO582137 SO 5820 1375

Altitude: 140m

Access
Gated, key required. Contact Royal Forest of Dean Caving Club.

Description
This cave is the longest in the Forest of Dean and the tenth longest in the UK at about 14km.

The cave starts of with a dug entrance shaft having fixed ladders in place. Very rapidly an SRT or ladder pitch is met that leads to the main streamway via a crawl. The streamway can be followed up or down leading to extensive dry fossil passages and a satisfying round trip.

The cave contains lots of bones, some of which have been studied. In fact, Channel 4 filmed an episode of Extreme Archaeology in the cave whilst investigating some of these.

History
The Wet Sink entrance was dug as far back as the 1950s but the breakthrough came in 1990 by members of RFDCC.