Peak District

I spent a lot of my spare time for several years from the age of about eighteen, exploring the Peak District of Derbyshire and North Staffordshire, about an hours drive from where I live.  A lot of that time was spent underground exploring and discovering the numerous cave systems, but the landscape is wonderful too!
Thor's Cave dominates the Manifold Valley in North Staffordshire. Located high in a limestone cliff and reached by a steep and sometimes slippery track, the cave was the site of an important archaeological dig in the early 20th Century. Formed long ago by a huge underground river, this remnant of the cave complex has been left high and dry by down cutting of the river forming the valley.

The present River Manifold follows an underground course today, the river water vanishing down numerous sinks or swallow holes in the river bed starting at Wetton Mill a mile or so upstream of Thor's Cave and only re-surfacing at Ilam four miles downstream.  During the summer months when the river volume is low the river bed can be completely dry between Wetton Mill and Ilam.

In the early 1980's, as a member of Trent Valley Caving Group I helped discover significant sections of the current underground river course.