Ogof Craig a Ffynnon ( Welsh for "Cave f theRock and Spring") is a

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The cave is about 7 km in length and is located at the base of a quarried rockface in the Clydach Gorge. Water flowing out of the cave is a resurgence of water draining off Llangatock Mountain above.

History

The cave was discovered in 1976 by Jeff Hill, John Parker and Bill Gascoine, who had been searching for years for the way in to an underground system that they knew existed to account for the water that resurged in the locality, giving its name to the Rock and Fountain Inn on the road below. The entrance is at the bottom of a quarried rock face in the disused Daren Ddu Quarry, in the flanks of the Llangatock Mountain.

The cave

The cave is about in length and is renowned as one of the best-decorated caves in Wales. It contains some early short crawling sections (and what is known as an arduous and uncomfortable boulder choke) and some wet passages with voluminous quantities of mud before developing into a series of large sections lavishly decorated with mud and calcite formations. The most spectacular of these is the ''Hall of the Mountain King'', a large cavern liberally adorned with

flowstone Flowstones are sheetlike deposits of calcite or other carbonate minerals, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in "solution caves", in limestone, where they are the most common speleoth ...

. The ''Promised Land'' is a long, linear passage section with a small stream. Beyond the well-decorated section the cave continues in a long series of low passages. It is thought that the cave will eventually be connected to the theoretical

Llangattock System Llangattock ( cy, Llangatwg) is a village, community and electoral ward in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Powys, Wales. It lies in the Usk Valley just across the river from the town of Crickhowell. The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal passe ...

through

Ogof y Daren Cilau Ogof y Daren Cilau is one of several cave systems in the Llangattock escarpment near Crickhowell in south Powys, Wales. The cave was discovered in 1957 and is one of the longest cave systems in the country. The cave It is one of the longest sys ...

. All the passages in Ogof Craig a Ffynnon occur in the

Gilwern oolite Gilwern is a village within the Brecon Beacons National Park in Monmouthshire, Wales. Historically in Brecknockshire, it extends to either side of the River Clydach on the south side of the Usk valley. Its position beside the Monmouthshire an ...

which is located below the

Llanelly Formation The Llanelly Formation is a geologic formation in Wales. It preserves fossils dating back to the Carboniferous period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Wales This is a list of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Wales. ...

. The resurgences from the cave all occur in this oolite layer or the shales just above and there is evidence that there is much waterflow, from much of Mynydd Llangatwg, emerging in the

Pwll y Cwm Pwll is a small coastal village, located between Llanelli and Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Description Pwll has a local shop, pet shop, Post Office located in The Blue Anchor (Wednesdays and Fridays 12:00 until 15:00), a few pubs, a steak ...

oolite, which is the resurgence for Ogof y Daren Cilau.

Access information

The cave can be approached from just above the old Rock and Fountain Inn on the Heads of the Valleys Road where there is a blocked layby beside some old

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take p ...

s. An old

tramroad A plateway is an early kind of railway, tramway or wagonway, where the rails are made from cast iron. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later. Plateways consisted of "L"-shaped rails, where the flange ...

track leads from here to the Darren Ddu Quarry. The entrance to the cave is at the foot of a rock face and is barred to prevent casual access and vandalism. Since November 2004, access to the cave has been controlled by the Mynydd Llangatwg Cave Management and Advisory Committee; this means a key must be obtained to gain access through the gate, and the log book should be signed. Round trips to the "Hall of the Mountain King" take about two and a half hours while those to the "Promised Land" take six hours. There is a fixed ladder at the first boulder choke and climbing aids at the second boulder choke, but otherwise cavers need to provide their own tackle. The cave sometimes floods, with a sump forming beyond the first boulder choke.

References

{{reflist Craig a Ffynnon Craig a Ffynnon Caves of Powys