The Promised Land

Summary

Many visitors to Ogof Craig a Ffynnon only travel as far as the Hall of the Mountain King, preferring not to partake in the extended crawl beyond. However, there is nothing too difficult here and all the crawling effort is well rewarded by the large passages and fine formations beyond. You should allow at least 6 hours for a trip to the end of the Promised Land, especially if including a visit to Helictite Passage.

Warning - Craig a Ffynnon is liable to flood in heavy rain, with Gasoline Alley filling to the roof in very wet weather.

Tackle

Climb to Second Choke: The split pitch before Second Choke is permanently rigged with a knotted handline to assist the 7m fixed ladder and 8m climb on footplates. However a 25m lifeline and/or cowstails are recommended for additional safety.

Promised Land Pitch: Rigging this pitch requires an 8m ladder and 16m lifeline, or alternatively a descent can be made without tackle using unmaintained fixed pins to assist a rope climb.

Route Description

To avoid repetition you should refer to the Hall of the Mountain King description for the route from the entrance up to that point, though the Printable Route Description (bottom of page) covers the whole route from the Entrance to the Promised Land).

Hall of the Mountain King to Promised Land

From the Hall of the Mountain King, following the taped path alongside the cave wall and heading left leads directly to Third Choke and the start of 250m of mostly crawling through Hurricane Highway. This starts off as a low belly crawl over smooth calcite floor, which is probably the tightest section, then fluctuates in size and awkwardness from then on. There is nowhere to go wrong here; if in doubt just look for the most worn route for the easiest way through. Eventually the passage increases in size to become Severn Tunnel, a fine canyon passage which continues for a further 250m before reaching a large junction. Here the main route is on the right (straight ahead and left leads to passages ending in boulder chokes), where the obvious route should be followed passing a hole in the floor to the Blaen Elin Streamway. A very large section of cave passage is soon met and at the next obvious junction we again take the right-hand route to ascend the boulder pile to Fourth Choke (the left-hand route leads to the Lower Series via an awkward climb and a 15m pitch).

At Fourth Choke things get briefly less pleasant. After the climb up the boulder pile, heading left reaches an awkward drop down into the choke, then once again it’s just a case of following the obvious worn route to return to large open passage beyond. The path descends down to the next junction where the pitch to the Promised Land is located on the left. The best hang for a ladder descent is on the right-hand wall at the top of the 7m drop, while the rope on the left (not visible from the passage above) is the free-climbable route.