Column Hall

For the first trip of 2025, we thought we'd take advantage of Column Hall in OFD being open and make a quick trip there. Anne and myself had never been to this part of the cave before, and while Keith had, he wanted to take the opportunity to abseil the pitch having previously used the route via Cairn Chamber.

What none of us had anticipated was how busy Penwyllt would be. The car park was chock-a-block and cars were parked all down the lane to the overspill car park past the gate leading to Top Entrance. On entering the cave we saw several parties, some of whom had just gone in ahead of us, and others who were coming in just after us.

Nonetheless, after heading toward Big Chamber Near the Entrance we quickly lost most of the other parties, and ended up with just two other cavers as we started to wind our way to the pitch. Apparently everyone else was going to the columns via Cairn Chamber. The pitch itself was very pleasant; it was accessed by a simple rebelay and involved a deviation shortly below the Y-hang. This dropped us down into the southern end of Column Hall and from here a two minute walk brought us to the Columns themselves.

These are very impressive, and rise from a shallow lake full of rocks covered with thin, spidery calcite veins. The whole setting is incredibly beautiful. Having enjoyed them for several minutes, we set off to explore the rest of the hall. Highlights included walls covered with different colours of flowstone, pop-corn shaped mud formations, a huge calcited rift and pyramids of mud topped with pebbles.

We must have spent a couple of hours enjoying what would only have taken ten minutes to walk around, and took care to take several photos. Some of these were shot by the second entrance to Column Hall, which includes a wet crawl through a large puddle. Several students were coming through this as Keith took photos, and on realising that Caver Keith was present, they all fell over each other fighting to be videoed coming through the wet puddle!

Appearing somewhat bemused by this expression of fandom, Keith attempted to get the lighting quite right but eventually admitted defeat. Which means that the keen students splashed and squirmed around repeatedly in muddy water all for nothing…

Shortly after this we packed up video / photo kit and headed out again via the pitch. A pleasant 20-30 minutes of relaxed caving ensued before we arrived back at Top Entrance. The passages all around Column Hall were extremely beautiful in their own right, making the trip out very enjoyable. This was a lovely little trip and a great way to start the New Year.

Cavers: Keith, Dave & Anne
Photos: Keith
Trip Report: Dave