Slaughter Stream Cave, also known as Wet Sink, is a

cave system Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground (such as rock s ...

in the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley () is a valley in Wales and England. The River Wye () is the Rivers of Great Britain#Longest rivers in the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The upper part of the valley is in the Cambrian Mountains an ...

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

. A series of fixed ladders and two pitches lead to sporting streamways, sandy crawls and fossil passages. The cave also contains some interesting archaeological finds, many historic bones were found in the cave – the most prominent of which is 'Norman', a dog who was trapped in the cave many years ago and whose footprints and skeleton can be seen in Dog's Graveyard passage. An episode of the Channel 4 documentary ''Extreme Archaeology'' was filmed in this cave. It is the longest cave system in the Forest of Dean followed by Miss Grace's Lane.

Description

Entrance series

The cave requires ladder and line or

single rope technique The single-rope techniques (SRT) are a set of methods used to descend and ascend on the same single rope. Single-rope techniques are used in caving, potholing, rock climbing, canyoning, roped access for building maintenance, and by arborists for ...

(SRT) kits — a single rope and 6 maillons/krabs is recommended. A wide variety of trips are possible, this is a good cave to visit in lieu of nearby

Otter Hole Otter Hole is perhaps one of the best decorated caves in Britain. Located on the Wales–England border just north of Chepstow, the cave runs from the banks of the tidal River Wye under the Chepstow Racecourse and onwards through various cham ...

when the sump is closed. The entrance is vertical, but fixed ladders are installed. After the ladders a short crawl through a precarious boulder choke (take care not to touch the scaffolding) leads to a concreted climb down with a scaffold bar sticking out of it. There is a p-hanger on the right at the bottom of this climb for a traverse line to the next climb. This next climb, although only around , is p-hangered and should be rigged; several accidents have occurred here, and less confident climbers should treat it like a pitch. The climb leads down to a large ledge, and a pitch. SRT kits can be left at the bottom of this pitch. After a further climb down the passage closes down into a crawl, in which the roar of the streamway can be heard. Once you meet the water continue along the streamway to enter the main section of the cave. Care should be taken not to swallow any water in the streamway as sewage is discharged into it.

References

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External links

RFDCC cave description
Wild caves Limestone caves Caves of Gloucestershire