Welcome to the British Caving Association
Your national body for underground exploration in the United Kingdom.
Specialist Caving & Activities Travel Insurance
Expedition insurance for UK cavers - Designed by cavers for cavers!
In recent years, cavers travelling abroad on expedition have had to buy their travel insurance from various commercial outlets, however many have had concerns – is cave exploration covered? Age limits? Will the insurer actually pay out??…..
The BCA have been working hard on behalf of their members to solve this problem and are pleased to announce the launch of BCA Member Caving Cover.
Warning Notice
To see the warning notice issued May 2019 regarding the use of toothed jammers as belay devices click here
AGM Weekend - THANK YOU!
A big thank you to everyone who attended the AGM this weekend. An excellent turn-out with some good debate and positive ideas for #britishcaving. 🙂
We'd like to welcome Matt Ewles as our new Secretary, Louise Baddeley as Conservation & Access Officer and Gary Douthwaite as webmaster. Several other posts were also renewed or confirmed.
The AGM agreed to adopt a new logo too so expect to see that changing throughout the BCA meda in the coming weeks.
More details to follow…
Watch The Golden Age of Cave Exploration Talks
To celebrate 50 years of pioneering British cave exploration and scientific research, renowned explorers of the subterranean world gathered together in December 2017 to share their discoveries and experiences during 4 days of lectures at the Royal Geographical Society, London.
On behalf of the British Caving Association and the British Cave Research Association, all 44 of these fascinating talks from around the world are now freely available to view online.
2019 Subscription Rates
At the Council meeting on 6th October it was decided that membership for those aged under 18 on 1st January will be free of charge.
All other subscription rates for 2019 will be unchanged.
Cave rescue in Thailand
On behalf of the whole British caving community, the BCA would like to congratulate the British Cave Rescue Council, members of the Cave Diving Group, their international friends and their Thai colleagues for the outstanding achievement in rescuing the 12 boys and their coach from the Tham Luang Nang Non Cave system in Northern Thailand.
As cavers and cave divers, BCA and CDG members will have had a good insight into the complexity of this rescue and an understanding of the risks and technicalities involved. The rescue was daring but executed with skill, bravery and determination.
We also must not forget the contribution of many others towards the successful outcome. In particular we salute Saman Kunan, the Thai Navy diver who lost his life while helping to prepare for the rescue.
In a world which seems to be becoming ever more divided, we are proud to be part of an international caving and diving community which can come together and achieve the almost impossible.
10 July 2018, updated 28 July 2018
GDPR for Caving clubs
The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR came into force on the 25th May 2018. Its aim is to give us control over our personal data, which is a good thing. The bad news is that it applies to caving clubs so there’ll be a bit of work to implement it.
The Information Commissioners isn’t going to sue your club on day one if not fully compliant. There are many, many organisation out there that aren’t ready for this. However it is better to crack on with it rather than ignore it. To help, I have written an article that concentrates on the practical steps a typical caving club needs to take to implement GDPR. You can read by following the link to GDPR for Caving Clubs.
Conservation & Access
New Caving Guidelines