New to Caving

About Caving

First and foremost, take a few minutes to read the New-to-Caving website produced by the British Caving Association. It gives you an overview of what caving is all about, the equipment we use, and what to expect on your first trips. There is also an excellent video of a trip into Long Churn Caves, a popular location for our events.

Sign-up for a Workshop

If our new-to-caving workshops sound like they might work for you, why not sign up to one below?

We try to keep at least one future event in our diary at all times, but if none are listed, do keep checking back, as furture dates will be posted as soon as possible.

Your new-to-caving session will include a get-together and a discussion about various aspects of caving including conservation and safety, and then a trip underground which will require you to be able to undertake a few hours of moderate exercise on very uneven terrain, involving perhaps getting wet or muddy.

All the equipment you need underground will be provided and you will be looked-after by friendly, experienced cavers. However, you will need your own transport to get to the meeting point in the Yorkshire Dales, and you will need to bring warm clothes, towels, spare socks and underwear, and food/drinks as this will be a whole-day event. Please be aware that changing into and out of caving clothing is done at the public parking area, typically by the side of your vehicle, and no dedicated or discrete changing facilities or toilets are available. If you have any specific accessibility needs or concerns, please get in touch with the organiser who will be able to advise.

The event host will be in touch in the week before the event with more information but a contact address is provided if you have any upfront questions in the meantime.

Upcoming new-to-caving sessions:

Connect with a local caving club

Did you enjoy your introductory session? Want to take it further?

For anyone keen to take the next steps after your first trip underground, you may find one of our 'New to SRT' workshops, advertised via our normal training webpage, a useful first step to learn the necessary underground ropework skills for more advanced trips. More dates for this are being added regularly so keep checking back. We usually try to co-incide the timing of these to be a couple of weeks after each new-to-caving session.

The best and safest way to progress your caving further is to join a local caving club. You will have the benefit of lots of experience and advice, access to kit, and most importantly, a great new group of friends to go caving with!

Below is a list of CNCC member clubs who are happy to take novices. Get in touch with them for joining information.

• Bradford Pothole Club Ltd
• Craven Pothole Club
• Grampian Speleological Group
• Northern Pennine Club
• Peak Caving Club
• Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club
• Sheffield University Speleological Society
• White Rose Pothole Club
• York Uni Cave and Pothole Club
• Yorkshire Subterranean Soc