Ogof Gwynt yr Eira

Location


Grid Reference: SN 732 185

Altitude: 490m

The cave entrance lies in a large shakehole adjacent to the main A4069 Llangadog to Brynaman road. It is on the western side of the road between Herbert's Quarry and the road summit.

Access
Open access, but please replace the cover over the entrance shaft after exiting.

There is ample car-parking available close by, however, it is a remote spot and the usual common sense precautions should be taken to guard against vehicle break-ins.

Description
Length: >523m

Vertical range: 71m

Ogof Gwynt yr Eira (meaning Cave of the snowy wind) is a rarely visited, but fairly extensive cave. It is quite vertical in nature and formed in some very shattered limestone - care must be exercised to avoid dislodging rocks. This is definitely not a place for beginners.

At a depth of about 40m, the cave branches off into two distinct sections. One section descends to a streamway and sump series by way of two extremely loose SRT pitches (Drop the Dead Donkey Pitches) formed on a fault. The second section leads through some muddy, tight passages and down more climbs into a rather fine, tall canyon passage (The Road to Nowhere) that ends at a muddy choke. There are numerous side passages, mostly trending upwards and extremely muddy in nature.

The streamway not been dye traced, but it is possible that some of the water originates from the nearby sites of Sinc Ger-y-Ffordd/Ogof y Nant and Ogof Foel Fawr. These sinks have been proved to resurge at Llygad Llwchwr which is some 6.3km distant and 260m lower in elevation.

History
The cave started life as a dig by members of SWCC back in 1985, the major extensions being found in 1995 and 1996.

Survey

 * See SWCC Newsletter no. 118 page 185.


 * Survey data


 * Simple line survey: