Lincoln Caving Club

🌞 July Roundup! Sunshine, Scrambles, SRT & a Cracking Social Weekend

July has been an absolute belter for Lincoln Caving Club, with adventures both above and below ground, plus big progress at our new HQ. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

🗳 AGM & Social Weekend. Peak District in Full Summer Mode

We kicked off the month with a brilliant AGM and social weekend in the Peak District. With clear blue skies and hot weather, Magpie Mine felt more like a caving expedition abroad than Derbyshire.
Evenings meant electricity only after dark and homemade pizzas courtesy of Steve & Alice’s legendary oven. Saturday saw a 10km walk via Over Haddon for the AGM and pub grub, looping back through Lathkill Dale. Sunday was a chilled explore of a local mine to round things off.

A perfectly good weekend with perfectly good people — exactly what club life is all about.

🥾 Walking the Roaches. 9 Miles of Scrambling, Boulders & Big Views

Not all our adventures are underground. This month we headed to The Roaches for a 9‑mile circular walk that took us 7.5 hours, and for good reason.

The route included the summit ridge of Hen Cloud, The Roaches, Ramshaw Ridge, and the atmospheric Luds Church. We stuck to the most direct lines, which meant plenty of scrambling and some massive boulder hopping. Absolutely brilliant fun, and in perfect conditions compared to our last Derbyshire walk.

It’s always great to see how many of our members love their adventures above ground just as much as below.

🧗‍♂️ New HQ Progress & First Local SRT Training Course

Back at home, gradual improvements continue at our new Headquarters. With fresh grass down and most of the rubbish cleared, we were finally able to run our first Single Rope Technique training session on site.

Both newbies did remarkably well, and they’ll be putting those new skills to the test underground in Yorkshire this weekend.

If you’d like to get involved and join a trip, drop us a message. Plenty more adventures to come as we head into August & September.

Lincoln Caving Club had an absolute cracker of a weekend in the Peak District for our AGM and social. With clear blue skies and hot weather, Magpie Mine felt more like a caving expedition abroad.

Electricity only after dark, homemade pizzas from Steve & Alice’s oven, a 10km walk encompassing Over Haddon for the AGM and pub grub, and back via Lathkill Dale, and a chilled Sunday exploring a local mine.

A perfectly good weekend with perfectly good people.

Photos curtesy of Alice, Brian, Ciaran and Leann

Sunday brought a change of pace, with Brian choosing the highly decorated Gavel Pot. After Saturdays wet and lively pull‑through in Swinsto, Sunday was all about taking in the formations and enjoying a slower, scenic trip. A beautiful cave for a milestone weekend, and a fitting way for Brian to celebrate turning 70 with friends who were more than happy to join him for another day beneath the Dales.

We're celebrating Brian's 70th this weekend, along with his twin brother. With a whole bunch of outdoor enthusiasts decending on the Dales, saturday's caving segment of choice saw seven of us pay a visit to Swinsto for a pull through to Valley Entrance. Nice, wet, cool, clean day out. The day ended with a birthday BBQ.

⭐ From First Trip at 15 to Eldon Hole at 18 — A Youth Development Success Story

A huge congratulations to Dom and Alex, who have just turned 18 and celebrated by completing a full SRT descent of Eldon Hole… an approx. 60 metre deep, multi pitch classic of the Peak District.

An incredible achievement for any caver, let alone two who only discovered the underground world three years ago.

What makes their story even more special is this: their parents aren’t cavers. They didn’t grow up around the sport. They didn’t have family or friends already involved. They found caving because their parents signed them up to one of our Under 18 Yorkshire Dales Caving Weekends in Ingleton back when we were linked with the Scout Association.

They caught the caving bug that weekend… and they’ve never looked back.

In just three years they’ve:
🕳️ Completed 29 trips with the club,
🧗‍♂️ Taken part in 4 official club SRT training days,
🔦 Done their first SRT trip in Goyden only a year after joining,
📈 Progressed their SRT skills through Giants, Oxlow, Knotlow, Sunset and Snelslow,
🌍 Explored major systems across the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, and South Wales.

Their journey shows exactly why our youth section matters.

Across the UK, most people start caving through Scouts, university clubs, or family connections. But with the Scout Association losing five caving last year alone, including Lincolnshire, many young people simply don’t get the chance to try this incredible sport.

By maintaining a dedicated youth section (14+), Lincoln Caving Club is keeping that door open, giving young people the opportunity to learn real skills, build confidence, and experience adventures they’ll remember for life.

Dom and Alex are proof of what’s possible when young people are given the chance.

If you know someone aged 14+ who loves challenge, teamwork, and muddy smiles, we’d love to help them start their own journey underground.

Over 40 years underground... and we’re still going.
From homemade ladders in the 70s to expeditions across Europe, cathedral abseils, international events, well explorations in pubs, and a brand‑new youth section… our club has packed a lot into four decades.

We’ve just published our full history on our website: stories, photos, adventures, the highs, the challenges, and everything in between.

If you’ve ever caved with us, volunteered with us, or just want to know what we get up to beneath the surface…
👉 Give it a read and take a trip underground with us.

🔗 https://www.lincscaving.co.uk/about-us/history

Check out our plans for summer!

www.lincscaving.co.uk

Our first "Give It a Go" event of 2026 was a brilliant success.

We welcomed newcomers from all over Lincolnshire, some who heard about us through friends, some who joined with existing members, and even a couple of University of Lincoln students who spotted our poster during a coffee‑shop study break.

We headed to the Peak District to explore a gentle, mostly‑walking cave that’s perfect for beginners. Plenty of smiles, plenty of muddy boots, and lots of “I didn’t expect caving to be like this”.

We also did our bit for cave conservation, taking spray bottles and water to carefully scrub away some recently applied spray‑painted arrows. A small act, but one that helps keep these places natural for everyone who visits.

More opportunities to try caving are available in September.

Register your interest here > https://forms.gle/FD8BqAdiotKEHP7L9