Description
The cave contains an active streamway, which has caused a highly varied cave system. Areas of the system range from low passages, through which cavers must crawl, to impressive chambers with sheer drops, and from dry fossil passages to thundering waterfalls and its infamous sumps. A plaque mounted on a stone plinth near Priddy village green shows a plan of the cave, overlaying a map of the village (see right).
Only a handful of the 11 principal sumps thus far passed can be dived without dedicated equipment (free-dived).
| Sump | Length of dive | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sump 1 | 2 metres (7 ft) | Free-divable |
| Sump 2 | 8 metres (26 ft) | Free-divable |
| Sump 3 | 10 metres (33 ft) | Free-divable but difficult |
| Sump 4 | 5 metres (16 ft) | Free-divable. Can be reached by-passing Sumps 1-3 – see below |
| Sump 5 | 10 metres (33 ft) | Has been lowered so it can be passed by ducking between airbells |
| Sump 6 | 10 metres (33 ft) | Not free-divable; can be by-passed |
| Sump 7 | 8 metres (26 ft) | Difficult; can be by-passed |
| Sump 8 | ? | Easily by-passed; upstream sump 9 is the limit of free-diving |
| Sump 9 | 40 metres (131 ft) | Passable by fully equipped divers only. |
| Sump 10 | Can be by-passed | |
| Sump 11 | ? | Often silted up; usually by-passed |
| Sump 12 | 20 metres (66 ft) plus | Thus far not passed |
The length of cave between the sumps are known by the number of the sump at the end of the stretch; thus the stretch between the entrance and Sump 1 is known as Swildon's One, between Sumps 1 and 2 as Swildon's Two, and so on.
Sump 4 can be reached without going through Sumps 1 to 3, via Tratman's Temple, Mud Sump, Fault Chamber and Blue Pencil Passage; parts of this route are extremely difficult.
The connection between Swildon's Hole and Priddy Green Sink was the first major through route discovered on the Mendip Hills. Following a number of months of digging and blasting, the link was made in 1996 at the top of the Cowsh Avens Series, a 120 metres (394 ft) climb above Sump 4.
The water in the cave resurges in Wookey Hole Caves. This was first demonstrated (by pouring dye into the water) by Graham Balcombe and Jack Sheppard of the Cave Diving Group, who first passed Sumps 1 and 2 in the 1930s.
Read more about this topic: Swildon's Hole
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