Lying in the abandoned Eldon Hill quarry is a cave which has been known about since around 1994.
I first heard rumors of this place one evening in the pub after a midweek caving trip.
There was story of a caving group who had gone out to sidetrack one evening and started the long entrance crawl, around half way they were met face to face with a badger.
unable to turn around they were only able to speedily reverse given the constricting nature of the cave.
A few people confirmed the story but with no names it could also be a load of bollox.
The cave is around 480m in length with a lot of it being a restricting flat out crawl, there is however arguably one of the nicest untouched avens in Derbyshire.
Access to the adit is a short 10m'ish abseil into the quarry.
There she is
Didn't manage to get any photos of the crawl as it would have been a right faff but here's the only one i could find online, a fossilized phreatic tube passage.
The first 90m or so of passage are like this.
You then arrive at "Little & Large's Airbells", where you are able to stand up briefly before continuing the grueling crawl.
16m further and your met with a junction.
To the right is a dig passage which completely sumps in wet weather and left is the way on.
The crawl gradually opens into a hands and knee's and continues for another 82m before entering ''The Litton Stroll''.
This can be explored in both directions and consists of multiple digs and a spectacular aven.
I first heard rumors of this place one evening in the pub after a midweek caving trip.
There was story of a caving group who had gone out to sidetrack one evening and started the long entrance crawl, around half way they were met face to face with a badger.
unable to turn around they were only able to speedily reverse given the constricting nature of the cave.
A few people confirmed the story but with no names it could also be a load of bollox.
The cave is around 480m in length with a lot of it being a restricting flat out crawl, there is however arguably one of the nicest untouched avens in Derbyshire.
Access to the adit is a short 10m'ish abseil into the quarry.
There she is
Didn't manage to get any photos of the crawl as it would have been a right faff but here's the only one i could find online, a fossilized phreatic tube passage.
The first 90m or so of passage are like this.
You then arrive at "Little & Large's Airbells", where you are able to stand up briefly before continuing the grueling crawl.
16m further and your met with a junction.
To the right is a dig passage which completely sumps in wet weather and left is the way on.
The crawl gradually opens into a hands and knee's and continues for another 82m before entering ''The Litton Stroll''.
This can be explored in both directions and consists of multiple digs and a spectacular aven.
Last edited:
