Exploring beautiful subterranean caves and caverns can be as fun as it is fascinating. And caving, also known as spelunking, can be an amazing day out in so many ways. Great Britain is filled with awe-inspiring ancient cave formations that you can walk, climb, crawl or even bounce or fly through on a safety harness! Here’s our guide to some of the best caves to visit in the UK. 
Somerset has a variety of different caves at Cheddar Gorge and Wookey Hole with some being great for adrenaline adventures and others for easier walk-throughs, and both offering specialist junior caving experiences.
Wookey Hole Caves
The strangely named Wookey Hole is an impressive place with stunning caves and fantastic legends. It is believed the caves at Wookey Hole valley were first inhabited around 50,000 years ago, although they had already existed for millions of years before then. You can visit all the caves, including one known as the Great Hall which is 80 feet long and about 75 feet high and another named the Witch’s Kitchen, that tells a story. The legend goes that during the Dark Ages there was an old woman who lived alone in the caves. Whenever anything went wrong the villagers blamed her thinking she was a witch who was casting spells and causing their misfortunes. The story tells how the people asked the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey for help and he sent a monk to exorcise her spirit to free the villagers from their curse. The witch fled deeper into the cave to a passageway known as Hell's Ladder where he blessed a handful of river water and threw it over the witch, turning her instantly to stone, where her figure remains today. You can walk through all these caves and find out more about the legends about them.
Wild Wookey
For adrenaline-seekers wanting an exhilarating experience in Britain's largest cave complex, Wild Wookey promises three hours of ‘adrenaline-fuelled, high-octane adventure caving'! Guided by highly experienced and qualified caving instructors, this is a challenging and unforgettable behind the scenes exploration of the show caves which includes unique access to previously hidden passages with a chance to inspect rare geological and archaeological features, unseen by the general public. There is some abseiling offering stunning vistas, traversing over the beautiful green water of the River Axe and European-style Via Ferrata climbs, which is Italian for 'iron way' meaning the route is equipped with metal cables, ladders, and other fixed anchors such as walkways or suspended bridges. Wookey Hole has the longest underground Via Ferrata route in England.
CHEDDAR GORGE AND CAVES
Cheddar Gorge and Caves is an amazing day out for all the family. The mysterious Gough’s Cave at Cheddar Gorge dates back over 500,000 years and is widely considered to be one of the finest show caves in the country. Named after the man who discovered it, Victorian explorer, Richard Gough, this is a cave filled with secret chambers, stalagmites and stalactites. Explore the ancient elders’ meeting chamber with cathedral-likes caverns and towering spires where the beauty of the high chambers is enhanced by atmospheric lighting that also helps to highlight some of the most interesting features. The lighting creates shadow illusions such as the much-loved 'Black Cat of Cheddar', a cat wearing a bow tie in shadow form. Gough’s Cave was inhabited at the end of the last Ice Age, around 14,700 years ago. It is also the location of the oldest complete skeleton ever found in Britain, known as Cheddar Man, who it is believed was a hunter-gatherer who lived around 10,000 years ago. This cave is suitable for accompanied children and dogs.
The Black Cat Free Fall
Named after the shadow of the 'Black Cat of Cheddar' is the Black Cat Free Fall, an exciting rocksport experience in which, with a safety harness, you climb a 30ft ladder and leap off the ledge for an adrenaline-charged free fall inside the stunning soaring chamber of the cave. Not for the faint hearted! This fall is suitable for children of 8 years and older.
Adventure Caving
Adventure Caving allows you to climb, crawl and descend over 40ft through the caves guided by expert cavers. There are adult and junior versions of this experience and both sessions last around 90 minutes. Pre-booking is recommended for all of the above experiences. Junior adventure caving is suitable for children of 8 years and older.
Find out more in our brief Guide to Somerset.
2. Caving in Wales 
SLATE CAVERNS
The Zip World Slate Caverns are a hidden underground world of fun and adventure in an old slate mine, unused for the past 200 years.
CAVERNS
This is a relatively new adventure caving experience in which you can climb and fly through a unique underground course that promises to be ‘the world’s greatest underground adventure’. The minimum age for children here is 10 years old and height restrictions also apply. 
BOUNCE BELOW
Bounce Below is an exciting underground network of bouncy nets, sky islands and ziplines inside the slate caverns with an exhilarating 60-foot vertical drop in the form of a chute you slide down. This is an experience unlike any other and filled with excitement and fun. The minimum age is 7 years old and height restrictions also apply. Pre-booking is recommended for both Bounce Below and the Caverns.
Find out more in our brief Guide to Wales.
3. CORNWALL CAVE CARVING
Cornwall has a cave with a romantic secret. On Crantock Beach in Newquay, in the deep cleft in the rock, there are several small caves, including one cave known as Piper’s Hole. At low tide, this small cave reveals a carving of a lady’s face that tells a tragic love story and the following poem:
‘Mar not my face but let me be,
Secure in this lone cave by the sea,
Let the wild waves around me roar,
Kissing my lips for evermore’.
It is believed the carvings were made around 100 years ago by a local artist named Joseph Prater, with a carving of a horse being a later addition during the 1940s. The legend goes that they are about a lady who died there after riding her horse along the beach and being caught by the incoming tide, drowning both her and her horse. It is thought that the artist was her heartbroken lover who carved the rock in remembrance of her. You can see the cave carving for yourself but be sure to go only at low tide.
Find out more in our brief Guide to Cornwall.
Caving isn’t for everyone but if you love history, legend or breath taking views then it could turn out to be something you would love. Ideal for rainy days, some of the caves at Cheddar Gorge, Wookey Hole and the Slate Caverns are beautifully illuminated and make for a day trip unlike any other.
Words by Kate Thompson.
