Clearwell Caves

Lots of things are changing. New website!!! Check it out. We think it is great, hope you like it too. www.clearwellcaves.com

Back in the 1984, we recorded some of the 'old men' (iron miners) during a couple of visits we arranged to the bottom of New Dun mine, where they had worked until 1945. We only used a couple of cheap tape recorders we had, so not brilliant quality, but the recordings have now been professionally cleaned up and short excerpts from their conversations are being played, as visitors walk through a passageway underground. It's incredible to hear voices of our friends again, and their reminiscences.

Our new summer window display in the Cave's gift shop, featuring studio ceramics by artist, Mary Johnson, created exclusively for Clearwell Caves using our ochre.

Many congratulations Peter and Sylvia on your marriage. Thank you so much for sending the photographs.

An opportunity to go on an exciting caving trip beyond the public areas of the show mine. Involves simple crawls and scrambling. Suitable any able bodied person from 7yrs upwards.

Nature's airconditioning: walking into the Caves turns the heat off instantly! 10 degrees.

Try Caving. Discover the 'Wonder of Under.' These exciting trips go into the deeper parts of the Caves, involving scrambling and in places crawling through the abandoned workings. The trips visit places like The Corkscrew, Railway Churn, the Sword of Damocles and Football Roof. Suitable for all able bodied adventurers, from 7yrs up.

The Caves are closed Sunday 20th, Monday 21st, Tuesday 22nd May. Sky TV are filming of an episode of Britannia for the new series next year. We wish to make all customers aware that the Caves are closed until Wednesday, when we hope to start returning the Caves to normal for later in the week. Our displays and the prehistoric fish projections, should be back to normal by Thursday. We apologise for the disruption, Thank you for your patience.

Remember, in all this heat, the Caves are a constant 10 degrees centigrade, so a chance to spend a fascinating hour or so in the cool! Shaded parking and cool drinks in the cafe.

We are looking at making improvements to the facilities at Clearwell Caves and we would love to hear your thoughts on what we do well and where you think there are opportunities for improvements to our facilities and what we offer. If you would like to contribute please fill out the form below or pop in and talk to a member of staff. Please fell free to submit multiple entries and also leave your contact details if you would be happy for us to follow up on any of your sugge...stions.
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The Easter Hare has hidden eggs throughout the Caves, can you spot them all? Some are easy to see others are harder to spot. Count them up on our free competition sheet and correct entries are entered into the Grand Easter Draw to win our super Easter prizes.

Clearwell Caves are open today, 19th March, with a log fire in the cafe to welcome you.

We are closed today, 18th March due to the heavy snow, and looking at the forecast, it is not predicted to stop for a few hours. Although the Caves are unaffected below ground, everywhere around them, on the surface, are buried under 3-4 inches of snow. Apologies to visitors, we promise to re-open as soon as possible. Please see here and our website for updates. Thank you.

An adventurous and fun trip into the deeper mine workings going 200ft underground. Involves simple crawling and scrambling. Suitable for 7yrs upwards, from novice to experienced caver. 3hrs.

Semi Deep Level Trip to spice up a special day. Suitable for complete novices from 6yrs old, or for the curious. A fun activity that includes the show caves, leaving the public route half way through to go on a simple caving activity, visiting areas beyond the public areas. Involves crawling and simple scrambling. 2hrs

The Caves are open from today 5th March. Parking will be limited and a bit difficult around the car park, please park on level areas in the access drive, to ensure you can drive away easily.
4X4's will find access easier. We are hoping to get the snow in the car park scraped away during the day. The underground is unaffected by weather. Thank you for your patience.

Closed over 3/4th March!

The Caves will have to remain closed for the weekend (3/4 March) due to the snow and conditions around the mine. We hope to be open on Monday 5th March. Many apologies for the inconvenience to visitors. Thank you for your understanding.

fantastic and magical as ever at Christmas. Great story and christmas decs... Good value at the main Cafe and parking assistants exemplary as ever. Loved the addition of the covered waiting queue area this year . If I could change anything ... possibly more choice for the children at the gift shop and avoid the park in winter as its very muddy ... See you next year .. All staff polite . Happy Christmas Clearwell Caves team /owners

We visited on December 23rd with two children ages 5 and 8. It was absolutely wonderful. The staff were extremely friendly and helpful and took the time to speak to the children. The magic inside the caves were amazing and we spent ages looking for present with the children's names on. There was no pressure to rush and it was all very relaxed. Santa was lovely and spent time having photos with the children. The children picked there own toys from the elves which were of good quality. The story was lovely and the children loved reading as we went along. Would highly recommend and we definitely will return next year.

Visited today, Wednesday 20th for 12.30 entry, our first ever visit. We were a party of 4, a 5 year old, her auntie and partner, and Nanna. There were plenty of staff at the car park which saved looking for a space. We were prepared for a wait but pleasantly surprised to go straight in. The child loved seeing all the trees with lights and reading the names on the parcels whilst seeking out Santa. There was a short queue for Santa but he didn't disappoint, our child was a bit anxious and he talked at a comfortable distance, we didn't feel rushed, and left very happy with the experience. Being able to choose your own gift was an added bonus. We found the story was spaced appropriately so no jostling, and well displayed. We were delighted to be able to purchase the story in a very well illustrated book from the gift shop. All in all we had a fabulous time and would recommend to friends and family.

Visited today (Wednesday 20 December) for our 10:30am slot, queued for about 15 mins with a friendly staff member at the head of the line talking to children. We were a group of 4, 1 2yr old, his parents and myself (Nannie). Thought the decorations were magical and had great fun looking for family members names on the decorated present boxes. Short wait to see Father Christmas of about 10 mins and he was lovely, asked my grandson his name, if he had been a good boy and what he would like, waited patiently as I took photos and wished us all a merry Christmas. We then went to the cabin to choose a present (unwrapped so you could see the present quality) and then into the story trail. This is divided into 2 sections with the cafe and gift stalls at the halfway point. My grandson loved the story as did we and the work that had gone into making the models was amazing. Every staff member was friendly and welcoming, well done everyone. We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit and thought it was extremely good value for money (and I’m not easily pleased). We can’t wait to visit again next year.

Me, my son & my parents visited the caves on Tuesday 17th July. It was so quiet there and most of the way around these amazing caves it was just us. It took us an hour as we were in awe of them and took lots of photos. We stopped in the lovely cafe above the caves and had a hot drink & a delicious cake afterwards. The surrounding countryside was so peaceful. Would definitely visit again

Magical day yesterday, we have not been before and we’re not disappointed. We were directed to a parking space, walked straight in to the caves with no queuing.

Inside the caves was lovely, the children especially liked finding the present with their name on, great personal touch. We waited around 5 mins to see Santa, had a great cuppa and snack at the cafe. Staff were friendly and especially helpful and efficient when we had misplaced our daughter! I hope there is a different story every year as we would like to come again. Thank you for the hard work in putting it together.

Loved our first Christmas visit here. The caves were beautifully decorated and very festive. We didn't have too long a wait for Santa, and he took time for a photo and to talk to the children. The choice of gifts was great instead of all 4 having the same thing which is usually what happens in grottos. The craft stalls and cafe were a lovely stop in the middle of the story, and the attention to detail in both the Christmas decorations and the story set up was great. We all had a really lovely morning.

Did the Deep Level Caving yesterday with my 8 year old son. It was one of the most intense and exciting experiences! I wasn't sure that I could do it, but so glad I did! Thanks to our guide, Kay, who was obviously experienced and made us all feel at ease. A brilliant adventure!

Absolutely love coming here every Christmas with my family. We came on Sunday 10th even though the snow was horrendous and Father Christmas couldn’t make it we still had a fabulous time. We went through the caves and the kids had a present and took loads of lovely family photos. We also enjoyed playing in the snow after. We were also issued a refund due to no Father Christmas which was so kind. Staff were also lovely and still made our trip from Bristol worthwhile. Thank you x

Absolutely brilliant!! First class tour guide ‘Laddy’ and lovely people on the tour made it such an enjoyable day out. I highly recommend!!

Absolutely amazing place for Christmas & meeting Santa. The whole experience was great, we’ve had 6 adults, 1 teen, 3 & 1 year old. All loved it. Great selection to pick your own present!� and the story trail about Cora. Definitely a place I would recommend! Looking forward to trying out your other celebrations (Easter, Halloween etc)

A fantastic experience, well organised and a great idea to have presents with children’s names enroute to Santa under the Beautiful Christmas trees, they loved it when they saw a present with their name on! The theme of bloobilos and Cara was throughout the caves and the children in our group wanted to hear the next stage of the story at each story point - great production and a big picture story book to buy in the gift shop, a lovely keepsake for 2017. Santa was wonderful and the gifts were good quality with a good choice of age appropriate toys. Queued for approx 20 mins. Cafe busy and cosy, quick turnover! All in all a lovely day. We had a booking for 12.30 on Sat 16th Dec and it ran well, staff lovely, chatty and helpful. Great value for money even tho we travelled from Cardiff in convoy! Looking forward to next year!

We visited on 3rd December, having been going since our daughter was 3 years old, she is now 19 and had come home from university in Manchester with her boyfriend especially to visit the Christmas Experience at Clearwell. We had not pre booked, but was told by the car park attendant, when we arrived just gone 10am, that we wouldn't be able to go in as it was fully booked until 4pm that day and that we had to book online! However, when we explained to a very nice member of staff, who was organising the pre booked queuing people, that we were four adults who wished to visit the caves and that we didn't need to see Father Christmas, she kindly agreed to allow us to pay on the door and go in. I would like to say a big thank you for allowing us to go in! I understand why you have introduced the online booking system, especially for the visits to Father Christmas, but I do think there should be some flexibility for those who wish to visit the caves to experience the Christmas event without the Father Christmas option! The only other disappointment was the gift shop, it seemed rather empty with hardly any Christmas gifts!!! ��

We visited here today, and it was quiet and relaxed. After enjoying some lunch in the cafe we explored the caves. I must admit it was a bit creepy being (what felt like) the only ones in there but it was very beautiful. It was easy to walk about and we had a pushchair but managed it fine.

Definitely a place we will return to.

It's OK but don't let others excitement carry you away. They are not natural ancient caves they were cut / dug out as an iron mine. So no religious or ancient connection. Not really a Druids place as I have seen somewhere mentioned. Think the Santas Grotto idea sort of gives it away. It's a place to visit like the Welsh deep mine museum. Its a bit like Chedder gorge and it's dug out caves Wookey Hole.

Have previously been here 3 times for the Easter egg hunt but very disappointed with this years token amount of eggs out. The children love seeing and counting the eggs, this year I think they were very short changed!

Pre booked for 1200. Didn't get in til gone 1230 people wait not booked and paying at til slowing whole process up. I thought that it was supposed to be pre bookings only that's what it said. Then waited for nearly an hr to see santa. Not very well organised at all

The storey was quite good but you missed a trick with that as it would have been nice to have been able to purchase a book with the story and illustrations in it at the end.

Will not be coming again very disappointed

When we arrived we were directed to the disabled/staff car park which would be less of a walk. The car park was full but we found a spot. We had prepaid for a 9 o'clock (am) slot. And as we got out a lady came up and said bluntly. 'This is the staff car park' she could see me struggling.' I replied 'And the disabled too'

All of your staff waiting outside witnessed this. the staff member proceeded to look at her colleague's in an exaggerated and theatrical manner and indicate that they ' had a right one here' and that I was being innapropriate at having corrected her. I apologised if she had taken offence. Then this horrible woman, flounced up the path with a rude and offensive manner, making an 'oooh noise She aggressively eyeballed us a few times when we got inside and we subsequently left as fast as we could get through. (13 minutes.) Your staff member behaved in an inexcusable manner and we will not be coming again. This is a shame as we usually come every year. Disgusted. 22. 12. 2017

Really disappointed with our first trip to the caves today. We arrived at 3.45 for the 4pm timeslot and waited just under 2 hours to see a father Christmas who although was lovely, his beard kept falling down. Trying to keep at 4 year old entertained for 2 hours was difficult and to honest not fair. I'm shocked at paying £36 for a 2 hour wait and then to have to pick a present from the hut. Where's the magic in that?! I've been to many different places to see Santa and I can honestly say this was the worst. We left to the shops being cleaned up and a pitch black walk back to the car park. There was no communication from any staff apart from an apology from Santa himself. If my 4 year old wasn't so excited I wouldn't have stayed in the queue. We won't be returning. I feel as though we have been robbed of £36 and a Sunday afternoon.