The next meeting will be held on Saturday 21st May at the British Caving Library at Glutton Bridge near Buxton – please find attached the Agenda. This will be the first face-to-face Council meeting for over 2 years and I do hope that as many DCA Members as possible will be able to attend. As it will be a hybrid meeting it will also be held online via the GoToMeeting platform for those unable to attend in person – the link will be circulated in due course. Following the meeting DCA has organised a couple of events for Members, the details of which are contained in the attached leaflet – I do ho ..read more

DCA is pleased to announce the revival of the Peak District Cave Exploration Prize. © Paul Deakin The competition will follow a similar format as before with the winners receiving 200m of Gleistein 9mm rope. The winner will be the caver or team of cavers who find the most new cave at a single site, by digging, diving or climbing, within the Peak District caving area during the calendar year. If nothing is found, the prize will be carried forward to the next calendar year. The prize will be awarded on an annual basis. DCA would like to thank Tony Seddon of Starless River for supplying the rop ..read more

The next DCA Council meeting will be held online on the 27th of September.  The agenda is available on the Meetings page. Officer's reports will be available nearer the date ..read more

The Derbyshire Caving Association is relaunching our SSSI Cave Monitoring Scheme. To encourage cavers to take place we are running a new competion for full details see the announcement ..read more

The latest issue (155) of the Derbyshire Caver is now available online. Fitting Lids at Cussey Pot and Intake Dale Mine The Intake Dale Mine Extensions Odin Mine’s Grand Re-opening Lid Repairs at JH Eldon Hole Bones Recovery DCRO Hauling Exercise at Eldon Hole SSSI Monitoring Update Previous issues from 75 onwards are also available thanks to the efforts of Mike Higgins ..read more

An open letter from Peter Knight following the recent increase in damge to mine entrances. Please read.  ..read more

The DCA wishes to thank you for your patience in understanding the delicate nature of the access issue at Masson Quarry and surrounding land at the moment. Please understand the owner has a right to work their own land and do so safely. They are currently working within permissions: no planning permission is required to clear scrub or move earth and to date, Gentlewoman’s shaft is still there but not accessible to us. Our access to Masson Quarry or Gentlewoman's has never been knowingly been formally agreed with the landowner and so we have never had a right, as such, to walk over the land to ..read more

It has been reported to DCA that the fixed ropes on the up pitches in Eldon Hole are in a poor state with a number of damaged sections. A group that was in there today have managed to isolate the damage and re-rigged the pitch as best they could with the original rope to remove the immediate danger, but a new rope will be needed here as soon as possible. The DCA does not install and maintain any fixed ropes, so we would not be in a position to offer any rope for this. If anyone knows the length of rope that would be required to replace the in-situ one, then that would be good information to ha ..read more

The latest issue (152) of the Derbyshire Caver is now available online. The Wardlow Sough Adit Restoration Project Removing Fresh Graffiti in Cumberland Cavern The Nixon’s Aven Dig The AƗ Passage Dig in Far Sump Extension The Early Days of Giants Hole Exploration Previous issues from 112 onwards are also available thanks to the efforts of Mike Higgins ..read more

Ash Dieback has been reported near various cave entrances across the UK and care needs to be taken as affected trees can become brittle and suddenly collapse, so think about those trees you use for belays and anchor points! Ash Trees are native to British Limestone environments and with 80% projected to succumb to the disease so it may only be a matter of time before someone has an unpleasant surprise at a top of a pitch. The effect of Ash Die Back (ADB) is beginning to manifest itself on the national caving scene and as a regional council, we need to think about this at our caving / mine sit ..read more