South Wales Caves

Ogof Cynnes Description

Ogof Cynnes is located in the middle of Mynydd Llangynidr (map), and is best approached by walking across the moors from Blaen Onneu Quarry to the east. The cave is located in the upper side of a very long elongated shakehole, the entrance being a slot between gritstones that cap the limestone in this area. The cave is notorious for the copious amounts of mud, which combined with some tight passages and a number of climbs can make the return journey quite arduous. The entrance drops into a small chamber and the route on is to pass the first (blind) pot and follow the tight rift ahead. A steep awkward descent from a squeeze on the right leads you to the top of the first 8m pitch. From the chamber at the bottom of the pitch a short climb up leads to a small crawl over dried mud to a short rope climb down. Here glutinous mud is met, and you are forced to lie in it as you squeeze through into a large mud floored chamber. On the return journey this rope climb will prove very tricky especially for the people at the end of the party when the climb, rope and themselves will be totally covered in slippy mud. From the chamber the way on is to follow the passage to the right, which leads to a boulder choke, a way on leads off to the right to a fixed ladder (questionable condition) which drops into the Main Chamber. From the Main Chamber there are numerous muddy crawls that can be followed.