Will's Hole, Will's Cave, Dinas Rock Cave, Easter Cave, King Arthur's Cave, Craig-y-Ddinas Cave, Craig-y-Dinas Cave, Wills Hole
NGR: SN 91470 08013 128 m.asl
Rhondda Cynon Taff
, Northern Outcrop - Central (Penwyllt to Penderyn)
map using leaflet map:
Cave
Access
Approach from Glynneath via Pont-Nedd-Fechan to the road bridge over the river Mellte near Dinas Rock., where vehicles may be parked. From the bridge, follow the track ESE along the North bank of the River Sychryd for 425m to the base of where the ramp once was. Go up the gorge 28m and climb up a short distance on the left (looking upstream) to the terrace in front of the cave entrance, in the base of the cliff.
Description
The entrance is about 1m square, facing the gorge. It consists of a short 3m pitch leading to a passage 15m long with a further pitch of 15m to twin passages, joined together at the end. The common passage leads to the sump at the West end (the same level as Ogof Pont Sychryd). The East end used to communicate with Ogof Coed-y-Ffyrnau, verbally. The working of the silica mine has caused the floor of the cave to be raised many feet by silt and chippings and for the sump to be completely blocked, so that in flood, the small stream creates a lake which takes some time to seep out. The East end has likely digs in the boulder chokes. There are some massive blocks of tufa bridging the rift-like passage. It is about 160m and 80m long in the respective passages, with several likely passages above and below. This was probably the underground route of the River Sychryd before the railway mineral track blocked up the sink. It's waters appear in Ogof Pont Sychryd and the resurgence into the river Mellte (Sychryd means dry ford, the river having been known to be dry).
History
First descended by William Lloyd, 'a miner's lad' in Wessex Cave Club, and friends Ronald Nale and Aneurin Williams at Easter 1938
Hydrology
Conservation
SAM: BR229/178
SSSI: 1434 Dyffrynoedd Nedd a Mellte a Moel Penderyn (Mixed)
Upstream
Downstream sump
Muddy water from Silica Mines
Survey
Wessex CC, Greenwood & Trower, 1938
BUSS 1972, Caves of the Sychryd Valley
References
Caves and Caving 1 (3), 93-98, 1938
Dinas Rock Legend: "King Arthur's" Cave Found, Western Mail & South Wales News, May 3, 1938, p.8
Pit Boy Finds King Arthur Cave, Daily Herald, May 3, 1938, p.9
Dinas Rock Legend Comes to Life, The Merthyr Express, May 7, 1938, p.2
Boy Finds Huge Cavern: "Stone Harp", News Chronicle, May 10, 1938, p.11
Remarkable Cave Discovery, The [Neath] Guardian, May 13, 1938, p.1
Arthurian Wonder Caverns, The People, July 24, 1938, p.1. "Thousands of pounds are to be spent in making the huge wonder caves and caverns in the Neath valley available to the general public...Explorers who have risked their lives...will broadcast their experiences next Thursday...The new world found in these passages surpasses in interest and magnificence anything yet found in Wales...young William Lloyd, a Glyneath collier boy who has searched the caves since he was able to walk... is getting a diver's outfit to complete his exploration."
Finer than Cheddar!, The [Richmond] Herald, July 30, 1938, p.14
records