Tag Archives: Central Northern Outcrop

Ap Robert – 12th February 2023

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Trip: Ogof Ap Robert
Date: 12/02/2023
Cavers: Dai Macdonald, Gareth Farr.
Written by: Gareth Farr.

A caving trip had been planned earlier in the week for us to go on Sunday, every Sunday being our caving day and Ogof Ap Robert was our choice of cave for this week.
Sunday morning came around quickly enough, we were running a bit late as I had slept in, but eventually just after midday we got to Trefil Village. We parked up by the quarry gate and proceeded to get changed into our gear, while getting changed we were approached by a man who was curious as to where we were going today, he said he was keen to have a go at caving so we advised him to contact BCC and after he and Dai had exchanged details we left him to carry on with his day and made our way to the cave.
Just over an hour later and after looking at some interesting shakeholes along the way we arrived at the swallet in which Ogof Ap Robert is located. The swallet is situated up on the moorland between the disused Trefil quarry and Trefil village and proved to be quite a walk to get to, but we were here and eager to get in.

Ogof Ap Robert Shakehole
Ogof Ap Robert
Ogof Ap Robert Entrance


The entrance used is located just up on the right hand side of the cliff face, we donned our helmets and made our way in. As soon as we were in the cave it became apparent that the cave passages go down quite steeply, and quickly, with several small climbs down some boulders and boulder fill we reached the first boulder choke. After coming out of the choke we made our way down a few more small climbs to reach the second choke, at the end of the choke there’s a climb which begins with an awkward little manoeuvre through a small hole in the righthand side of the passage wall and leads down into another rift. We had brought rope and hangers with us as there is a hanger in place at the top of the climb to secure a hand line to to help you down and back up, but a hand line was already in place and after checking to see if it was safe to use we made our way feet first through the small hole and down into the rift below. Shortly after we then came to the third choke and the fourth choke, the fourth choke contains a scaffolded shaft that goes down and comes out pretty much at the beginning of Toad Hall, which is the biggest chamber in the cave.
Just before you enter Toad Hall, there’s an Aven that we climbed up which leads you out onto a boulder balcony that overlooks the big chamber, after taking a minute to take in the view we moved on by taking the passage to the right of the balcony, this took us over a small traverse and onto a climb down through a hole and the end of the small passage, after a couple of more small crawls we emerged back into Toad Hall.
We took a short stop for a drink and change of batteries then entered a hole in the floor which is found just to the left around some boulders as you enter Toad Hall. The hole took us under the boulder floor of Toad Hall, we were pre-warned by Huw Jones of BCC that the boulders are known to move under there and if we do go through there then we were to proceed with caution! I took a quick look and decided that it looked ok to move on, after a short careful crawl under the floor we encountered a small squeeze which I tried to go down, but couldn’t get through, then after a few seconds it dawned on me that the way through the squeeze was only a few inches to the left of where I’d first tried squeezing through, eventually we made it through and into a nice little passage which we followed until we reached Burma Road.
As we made our way along Burma Road we quickly noticed how different this part of the cave was compared to what we’ve just gone through, with all the sediment banks and muddy floors it was a lot different. The mud, as with any cave that has mud in it, did provide a little bit of entertainment, with the slips, wellies getting stuck and just generally getting muddy! We made our way along this tidy sized, muddy passage until we came to a few muddy crawls and a squeeze, shortly after which we came to the end of Burma Road, we had a bit of a chuckle at ourselves covered in mud, then decided to call it a day and made our way back out.
As we had plenty of time left on our call-out we decided that on our way back along Burma Road we’d have a look in the ‘land of Arawn’, this was also a muddy passage which we were able to stoop along for a short while until we reached a few muddy crawls, at the end of the crawls we came to an Aven which is the end of the passage, at which point we turned back around and got ourselves even more muddy crawling back out.
On our way out we had a short stop in Toad Hall to take some videos, with the videos finished we made the rest of the way out. As we left Toad Hall and entered the fourth choke the draft from the entrance was very strong, which surprised me as we didn’t notice it on the way in. While coming back out we again found ourselves amazed at how steeply and quickly this cave ascends/descends.
After a short while we emerged from the cave to the usual smells of life above ground, we stopped for a quick drink then made our way back down off the mountain, while stopping to take a look at the shakeholes that were on our path back down.
About an hour after exiting the cave we arrived at the car, got changed and after a quick cuppa and a bite to eat we contentedly made our way back home.
The trip was only a short caving trip, but it was a really good trip into a cave that we’d not been to before. Ogof Ap Robert proved to be quite a sporting cave with the climbs, crawls and squeezes, and as for the mud? Well… that was the icing on the cake for me!!!! Now onto planning the next adventure underground!

Happy Caver!

A Day at Trefil – Ogof Tarddiad Rhymney and Ogof Garn-y-Bica, Sunday 7th August 2016 by Huw Jones

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A joint Brynmawr CC / Morgannwg CC trip

BCC – Tom Williams, Andrew Zerbino, Huw Durban
MCC – Helen Stewart, Malcolm Stewart, Dave Glover
BCC & MCC – Huw Jones

All photos- Huw Durban

After talking to people in both my clubs, there seemed to be interest in doing some joint caving trips and so I arranged this day trip to the Trefil area. There’s plenty of caving to do at Trefil but the area has become quite remote since the quarry road was closed just beyond the village. That means a long walk up the road to the caves so I thought it would be a good idea to spend the day there and do a couple of caves, with lunch in between.

The team in the quarry, outside the entrance to Ogof Tarddiad Rhymney

The team in the quarry, outside the entrance to Ogof Tarddiad Rhymney

I had hoped it would be a fine and hot summers day so that we could walk up in shorts and t-shirts, carrying all our caving gear on our backs. On the day, the morning was coolish, windy and there was even some light rain! With the forecast for things to improve (apart from the wind) people were dressed in various ways, from wearing full caving kit, wearing furries and carrying the rest to me carrying everything (including wellies) and wearing walking clothes. We met plenty of other people on the road, dog walkers, joggers, cyclists, as we walked. By the time we were near the quarry, the wind was getting very strong but soon we were outside Tarddiad Rhymney, where it was a little more sheltered.

A quick bite to eat, then we got changed and all headed into the cave. It soon transpired that myself and Dave were the only one’s who had been here before. The cave is mainly a single large passage, with plenty of boulders but there’s also enough calcite formations to look at and even some very nice mud deposits! The cave is well over a kilometre long and even the main passage, on it’s own, is a good few hundred metres. Following the small stream, we made our way down through the cave, with Zeb, Huw D and Dave chatting away non stop at the back. We passed a junction where a crawl on the right leads into a side series of passages. We didn’t go that way this time but carried on to the boulder choke, where there’s only a fairly short crawl through the boulders. On the other side, a short section of large passage leads to the final bit of streamway, which is much smaller than the rest of the cave. Most of us only went a short way down this, to where it reduced to a crawl in the water but Zeb and Tom pushed on a bit further as the rest started out. We’d all remarked on how hot the cave was, something we noticed even more as we made our way out, as we were now going uphill. Zeb and Tom soon caught us up and we carried on out as one group. Everyone said they enjoyed the cave and were surprised at how big the passage is.

In the main passage of Ogof Tarddiad Rhymney

In the main passage of Ogof Tarddiad Rhymney

Dave with calcite/mud formations

Dave with calcite/mud formations

In the main passage of Ogof Tarddiad Rhymney

In the main passage of Ogof Tarddiad Rhymney

A quick change for some and we made our way out of the quarry and up onto the hillside above, heading for Ogof Garn Y Bica. Finding a comfortable, grassy spot near the entrance, we settled down for lunch. The sun was out and we were even fairly sheltered from the wind. The sandwiches came out, the pasta salad was passed around, the stinky cheese offended nostrils, everyone had a nibble on my polish sausage and a couple of (very small) glasses of wine were downed by all except Tom, who didn’t want to fall asleep.

Tom looses his head over a hole near our picnic spot!

Tom looses his head over a hole near our picnic spot!

We had various caves to choose from for the afternoon. Ogof Ap Robert is the other big cave in the area, also over a kilometre long. I wanted to have a look in a small cave called The Rifts, as it seems to be the highest cave Wales – the cave with it’s entrance at the highest elevation recorded on the Cambrian Cave Registry anyway and I’d carried up a ladder for the small entrance pitch. There are lots of other interesting sites as well, including an old dig of mine and Barry’s. Tom is learning SRT at the moment so a couple of days before had said he wanted to do Garn Y Bica, which has two 20m pitches (and not much else!) and we’d carried up two 25m ropes, plus the rigging gear, between us. Tom, myself, Helen and Malcolm were doing Garn Y Bica but Zeb and Huw D had other things on later in the afternoon, so had to get back. Dave didn’t want to do any SRT because of a dodgy knee and so the three stayed on the surface chatting, before heading back to Trefil, across the mountain instead of down the road.

Zeb at the entrance to Ogof Garn-Y-Bica

Zeb at the entrance to Ogof Garn-Y-Bica

The four of us got kitted up and I headed into the low and slightly awkward (with an SRT kit on and dragging a bag) entrance, to start rigging. The cave is rigged with spits and there were already hangers so I didn’t have to use any of the one’s we’d carried up. God knows how old the hangers are mind and one, near the top, was obviously steel as it was very rusty! There was a lot of loose rock on the first pitch, which is a bit narrow and scrappy and has two rebelays. I did a quick garden of the loose stuff as I went, just brushing down the most easily disturbed stuff. I should have made a more thorough job of it as plenty of missiles still came down during the trip, dropping close to people below. The second pitch is better and once passed a short narrow section, is a nice 20m free hang. Once we were all at the bottom, there was nothing else to do but make our way out, with Malcolm bringing up the rear, derigging.

Back on the surface, there was no sign of Dave so we surmised that he must have headed back to Trefil with Huw D and Zeb. We got changed and started back ourselves, taking in a short tour of some of the interesting features on the hill, en route to Trefil. We started with the Trig Point on top of the hill (just over 2000ft) and then across to the large Bronze Age burial cairns, where there was also a memorial to the crew of a Wellington bomber, that crashed here in bad weather in 1940. An information sheet at the small cairn memorial, states that the crew thought they were flying over East Anglia, after returning from a successful mission! There are a few small pieces of aluminium wreckage to see. From here we found the entrance to The Rifts and then Pwll Chwedliath, the old dig of mine and Barry’s, which is very difficult to spot until you’re right by it. Next it was on to Ogof Ap Robert and then Pwll Pirs, which is a large chamber, formed just below the surface of the moor, where the roof has collapsed, leaving a gaping hole. We made a be-line back to the road, over some pretty rough ground and found Dave at the cars, who had been waiting for a couple of hours as was giving me a lift.

It was a pretty hard day, with lots of walking over rough ground carrying heavy packs but with the pleasant company, a couple of good caves and a nice lunch with a great view, everyone said they’d enjoyed it and would do something similar again. Next time we are thinking of doing Ap Robert and The Rifts.