Carlswalk Cavern

• Fun Factor - 4/5
• Faff Factor - 3/5
• Difficulty - 1/5

With the Easter holidays upon us, Vale Minimus (VM) requested a caving trip. Following the success of a Long Churn descent the previous year, Vale Senior (VS) was happy to organise another outing and suggested the Peak District as a follow-up to the Dales.

VM was keen on Giants Hole, but although VS was willing to lead the trip, he had concerns about VM tackling Garland’s Pot and the potential difficulty of assisting him on the ascent if needed. As a result, Calswark Cavern was chosen as a more suitable alternative. With the plan agreed, Team Vale loaded up the car, put Dangerous Dick on the stereo, and set off for Stoney Middleton.

The cave proved easy to locate. Directly opposite the entrance is Rock Mill Holiday Apartments, which offers a large car park, along with The Cupola Café Bar & Grill (also the Stoney Middleton Visitor Centre), where clean toilets were found to be a welcome bonus before heading underground. After a brief wander exploring a couple of nearby holes and a chat with a Scout group practising abseiling, we began our descent.

VM found the entrance climb challenging. It consists of a stepped descent beneath twisted tree roots, dropping around 10 metres to a short crawl before opening into the main (relatively dry) streamway. Turning right leads through a varied passage - sometimes dry, sometimes very wet - with changing ceiling heights. A short crawl around a large hole in the floor brings you into Oyster Chamber and the fossil bedding plane, where we paused to take photos and record a short video.

This point forms a crossroads. Turning right heads downstream and eventually closes down, while turning left follows an obvious, semi-wet route down Eyam Passage. Continuing along this passage, via a few crawls and easy to locate side passages, leads to a shaft of daylight marking the end of the through-trip, emerging further down the valley near Eyam Road and the electrical substation.

At this stage, however, we chose to turn back and exit via the Gin Entrance, as we still had several hours before call-out and it would bring us out closer to the car. Unfortunately, on the way out we missed the left-hand crawl that leads directly to the exit and instead continued into a much wetter section of the cave. After around 20 minutes of wading - at times in waist-deep water - we reached a dead end and fortunately realised our mistake. During this detour, VM lost a shoe in the mud, requiring VS to retrieve it by feel, which was less than ideal but fortunately recovery of the footwear was achieved with minimal tears shed.

By this point, VM was low on energy and becoming anxious about finding the exit again. He was settled on a rock with chocolate and juice while VS retraced the route to locate the correct exit. This was found very quickly, and we soon returned to the crawl leading back to the entrance climb. Although initially hesitant, VM was encouraged by the presence of a Scout peering down the pitch from above and climbed out quickly into the daylight and the completion of the trip.

A short walk back to the car followed, where we changed and enjoyed chicken and chorizo sandwiches before an easy drive home. Total time underground was approximately 4 hours.

Overall, we’ve given the trip a faff rating of 3/5, mainly due to the navigational error on exit. Otherwise, it is a straightforward and enjoyable cave, with good photographic opportunities. It also served as a useful reminder to carry emergency cave chocolate for quick energy boosts. We would highly recommend this trip for novice cavers or anyone looking for a relatively easy and rewarding trip.