Tuesday 1 December 2009

The discovery of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu

Peter Harvey, one of the co-discovers of the Ogof Ffynnon Ddu cave system in south Wales, died recently aged 88. Meaning the 'Cave of the Black Spring', it is the deepest and third longest in the UK. This magnificent network of passages was first revealed to Harvey, and fellow caver Ian Nixon, on the August bank holiday of 1946, and it was to become Britain's first underground National Nature Reserve.

There is little in the Guardian and Observer archives about the Harvey and Nixon find but there are several pieces about EA Martel's discovery of Gaping Ghyll in 1895, as well as a book review of Norbert Casteret's My Caves, by George Orwell.

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