27th December The Dan yr Ogof Caves were first discovered on 27th December 1912, by Tommy and Jeff Morgan, who were trying to find the source of the river Llynfell that flowed through their farm land at the base of the cliffs at Dan yr Ogof. The brothers had tried previously, but had been prevented from penetrating far into the mountain by a large lake. Undeterred they returned with coracles, candles, a piece of rope and an old revolver, using arrows in the sand to find their way back. They crossed not one lake but four and discovered a labyrinth of caves, passages and chambers, a 330 million years old wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites. They were eventually stopped by a small passage that was too small to crawl through. Not long afterwards, they started charging a small entrance fee to take people into the caves. Using candles to light the way, visitors in those early days were expected to wade, and swim through icy cold water, climb underground cliffs, and negotiate huge boulders covered in slimy mud. The brothers later opened the caves properly to the public in 1939, but during World War II, the government closed the caves down and used them to store ammunition and art from Cardiff and Swansea, with armed guards positioned at the cave entrance throughout the entire period of the war. Water from the caves was also piped to Swansea when the water mains were damaged by bombs during the blitz on the city. In 1963, a local girl called Eileen Davies, a member of the South Wales Caving Club, eventually managed to crawl through the passage that had stopped the Morgan brothers, discovering over 10 more miles of caves and passages, with expert cavers believing that there are still more to discover.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:10:00 +0000
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