Lectures, Films & Workshops

Hidden Earth Lectures, Films and Workshops

The weekend is packed with lectures, with two or three parallel sessions running both days. Topics include new and old exploration from the UK and overseas as well as workshops covering cave science, research, technology and photography. 

We wouldn't have an event if we didn't have lots of exciting lectures so we encourage all cavers to submit a talk, film or workshop. You can submit your abstract online any time throughout the year - even if you haven't been on that expedition yet!

Lecture secretary: Gary Douthwaite - lectures@hidden.earth

Giving a lecture? Please read our information for lecturers.


2023 Sessions

Hear's the sessions from Hidden Earth 2023. Sessions for 2024 will be shown here in the run-up to the conference. You can also look back at previous years.

Lecture 2023

Setting up a Caving Club

Kai Trusson

Lecture 2023

Cavers Rescue Cavers - the role of BCRC

Peter Dennis

Lecture 2023

Huautla System Speleological Project (PESH) 2023

Kristian Brook

Continuing explorations of Sistema Huautla in the Mazatec highlands. This years expedition consisted of pushing for higher entrances to achieve the goal of a mile deep system, along with collection of sample for scientific research.

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Lecture 2023

Should the GPF mandate cave expedition carbon offsetting?

Rob Watson, Wookey

It is imperative that international cave exploration adapts to the ongoing climate emergency by better considering the carbon emissions associated with it. Although there is willing among UK expeditions to reduce their carbon footprints (see: https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?threads/carbon-offsetting-for-expeditions.30925), there seems to be some uncertainty about the most effective way of doing so in all cases. To this end, the Ghar Parau Foundation...

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Film 2023

GB Cave: descent of Mendip's tenth deepest cave

Nick Thorne

The film follows a single caver's journey on a sporting descent of Mendip's tenth longest and tenth deepest cave. The film was completed in August 2023. To our knowledge, it includes the first filming of Disappointment Chamber and Great Chamber. The 21 minute film is followed by a two-minute extract of a recent (August 2023) interview with four of the...

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Lecture 2023

Caving in the Philippines- Negros recce

Henrys Dawson & Bennett

Negros is an island in the southern part of the Philippines. I has an active volcano, landslides, insurgents battling the military, flash floods and a lot of very nice gin! It is also composed of limestone and has entrances you could get 50 busses in. Half the island is unexplored and the last expedition was decades ago. We decided it...

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Lecture 2023

Artificial Cave System in memory of Paul Dold

Paul Wilman

Behind the scenes to how the Horsham Scouts artificial cave system in memory of Paul Dold came about, and to its completion

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Lecture 2023

SpeleoSisters+: Alternative spaces in caving

Nadia R-c

SpeleoSisters+ is a community group for women and gender diverse people in caving that was founded in February of 2020. The pandemic slowed down the initial momentum for our inaugural event, however the Facebook group has now grown to over 250 members and we have run six successful weekend events to date. The success of this group demonstrates the need...

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Lecture 2023

A new African Master Cave in the Kongo Central?

Bernard Lips, Jean-Philippe Dégletagne & Michael Laumanns

In the framework of the Geo-Resources for Development (GeoRes4Dev) project of the Belgian Africa Museum (Tervuren) a small team of African, Belgian, French and German cavers visited the Mbanza-Ngungu area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (province Kongo Central) in July 2023. Within only two weeks the expedition surveyed about 10 km of passages in 12 caves and made...

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Lecture 2023

The Horner Photographic Collection

Andrew Hinde , Ged Benn.

The Horner Collection is a unique archive of early caving photographic plates and prints from the Yorkshire Dales. Photos of incredible technical proficiency from 1890s to 1950s. Based in Settle the collection covers the opening of Victoria Cave and subsequent archaeological workings plus remarkable images of classic caves such as Alum Pot and Gaping Gill. The collection is being digitised...

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Lecture 2023

How to make a successful a caving film

Keith Edwards

Keith has been making films of his underground adventures for the past 33 years. He has been awarded first place in the Hidden Earth Video Salon on two occasions as well as Best in Show at the National Speleological Society Convention. His YouTube channel currently has 87 thousand subscribers and 54 million video views. In this lecture Keith will examine the...

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Lecture 2023

Caves of the North Bristol Outcrop

David Hardwick

The Mendips are the most well known caves in the South West Region but there are others areas of limestone in and around Bristol. This talk focuses on an outcrop of limestone north of Bristol which includes the cave "Fishmongers Swallet" which has been explored by HADES CC and UBSS over many years with unusual discoveries - both...

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Lecture 2023

Vietnam & Laos 2020 - 2023

Peter Macnab (snablet)

Overview of 2020 Laos expedition, 2020 & 2023 Vietnam expedition A round up of recent Vietnam Cave Project Expeditions to the karst mountain range of Phong Nha Ke Bang Massif (Vietnam) & Hin Nam No (Laos) to continue exploring and surveying the mountains underground rivers.

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Lecture 2023

Deep in the Levant

Emma Porter, Mike Clayton & Team

Lebanon has a turbulent history with its civil war, the Beirut chemical explosion in 2020, severe economic crisis and the UK Foreign Office only just declaring that travel is safe (with caution). This talk is about our very recent expedition to Foura Dara, first explored by John Middleton & Sami Karkabi in 1968. The aim of the expedition was to protect...

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Lecture 2023

Evidence of a Past Acid-Metal Mine Pollution Event Found within a Macrotidal Estuary on Anglesey

Lydia De Brett

Acid-metal mine wastewater is a source of heavy metal pollution within the United Kingdom. This occurs due to a lack of remediation of closed Acid metal mines preventing mine water seepage. Evidence of a past marine pollution event on Anglesey due to a release of acid mine wastewater from Myndd Parys was recorded in the sediment present in Dulas...

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Lecture 2023

Migovec Expedition 22, 23

Ellie Pizey

Imperial College Caving Club has been exploring System Migovec in Slovenia for almost 30 years. While we had to take two summers off due to covid, we were able to get back up the mountain in 2022 and 23. I will talk through some of the discoveries in these years as well as hopes for the future.

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Film 2023

Nagaland caving expedition 2022-2023

Dan Harries

Nagaland is a state in northeast India on the border with Myanmar. The terrain is rugged, steep and densely forested. From the 19th of December 2022 to the 6th of January 2023 a multinational team of cavers visited an area in the east of the state with the aim of exploring and documenting the local caves. To...

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Workshop 2023

Video salon showcase. Viewing of submitted films, comments and feedback session.

Paul Taylor

Viewing of the submissions to the video salon for HE 2023. The aim is for discussion, feedback and comments from viewers and other videographers alike to share ideas and improve techniques for everyone. We're also happy to take suggestions on how best to run the salon in future years.

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Workshop 2023

BCRA - Cave Survey Group Meet

Jonathan Lester

The UK-based Cave Surveying Group (CSG) was established in 1993. The Group is a forum for the discussion of everything "surveyesque" - techniques, data capture & processing, standards, survey archiving policy, instruments etc. This will be the second meeting of the group this year to discuss further advancements and talks in 2D and 3D cave surveying and include the AGM....

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Lecture 2023

Forgotten Voices Speak: Recording Historic Graffiti in Kents Cavern

Linda Wilson

In January 2023, a pilot project to record the historic graffiti in Kents Cavern, a showcave in Torquay, was carried out in the area of the cave known as the Bear's Den as part of the cave's Conservation Plan. The chamber contains the earliest dated inscription in the cave, William Petre 1571, and a vast wealth of other names and...

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Lecture 2023

A sink to rising Fairy tale in Weardale.

Adele Ward

At 3.5km in length, Fairy Holes is one of the most significant stream caves in the country, with some passage dimensions more akin to south wales than other classic yoredale series caverns. Accessed via a quarry near Stanhope, the area around Fairy Holes is steeped in mining history. Legend has it that lead miners once entered the cave and travelled...

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Lecture 2023

Scottish Roundup

Alan Jefferys (goon)

It has been six years since the last Scottish roundup, and some significant discoveries have been developed during that period. The talk will update progress in all Scottish caving regions, giving an overview of various research and investigative schemes run by the Grampian Speleological Group to collect and document caves of every type and size to be found north...

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Lecture 2023

The Demographics of British Caving

Rostam Namaghi

Have you ever wondered how many cavers there are? Have you ever wondered how many there were in 1934? What did Foot and Mouth do? Is caving growing or shrinking? Join me for a mostly coherent ramble where I'll document my deep dive into our subculture's demographics, some surprising finds along the way and wild speculation about the future. Don't worry if...

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Lecture 2023

Thoughts on the future of 2D Cave Surveying

Rostam Namaghi

This is a summary of several discussions at the Cave Surveying Group meetings that might be of interest to cavers in general. Surveys are a 2D solution to a 3D problem and in an era where 3D scanning is becoming more and more accessible people are pushing to change the way we read and access surveys. This lecture will summarise some...

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Lecture 2023

BCA - Youth and Development Talk: Unearthing Ancient Wisdom and Future Shenanigans

Jonathan Lester

Everyone is welcome for an informative and interesting talk, showcasing the best of university and non-university youth caving. We aim to work on some amazing ideas for how we can continue to attract new cavers to the sport, both within and outside of the university system. All whilst emphasising and developing safety, expeditions, workshops, groups and research skills!

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Lecture 2023

Advancing Archaeological Speleothem Research & Its Future Role In Cave Digs

Jonathan Lester

Speleothems provide unparalleled and unique insights into localised and regional paleoclimate and paleohydrological conditions on a finely-detailed, precisely dated timescale. Recent research has even revealed their capacity to capture indicators of human occupation through a technique known as fuliginochronology. This presentation delves into my work on the foundational concepts of fuliginochronology and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), opening the doors to prospective investigations...

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Lecture 2023

Northern Round-Up

Frank Pearson

The Northern Round-Up is an overview of the exploration of caves and sumps and of conservation projects in the north of England. The digs, dives and conservation are the work of caving clubs and informal collectives of cavers. Much has been discovered and explored since the last Hidden Earth, so this will be a bumper Northern Round-Up.

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Lecture 2023

Totes Gebirge (CUCC) expedition 2023

Nadia Raeburn Cherradi, Sarah Parker

This year, cavers from all over the UK returned to the Totes Gebirge region of Austria to continue exploring the caves of the Loser Augst-Eck plateau, building on decades of exploration by the Cambridge University Caving Club (and friends). Over 6 weeks this summer, a record-breaking 51 people joined the expedition - many students and over a third also joining...

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Lecture 2023

Snottites, Slime and Oozes – Derbyshire Mine Biofilms

Jo White

Jelly-like pendulous ‘snottites’, gelatinous oozes and mucoidal slimes, while sounding like something from a low-budget alien horror film, are descriptions of some of the biofilms found in Derbyshire mine environments. We have studied three soughs that drain former lead mines in Derbyshire through collection of samples of the biofilms present. Within the project we have analysed the bacterial composition of these...

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Lecture 2023

Peak District Round up 2020 to 2023

Simon Brooks

As an established UK caving area the Peak District has seen digging activities taking place since the 1940's and cave diving since the 1950's. One could be forgiven for thinking that by now most of the cave passage that existing had been found. However, as with many other areas things could not be farther from the truth. COVID tempered activities...

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Lecture 2023

Caving in the Abode of the Clouds, Meghalaya 2020 to 2023

Simon Brooks

The Caving in the abode of the Clouds Project has been active in the small, cave-rich state of Meghalaya in North East India for over 30yrs. Each year, apart from 2021, multi-national teams have joined with our Indian counterparts to explore many fine caves being a mixture of large river systems, huge relic passages and many fine shafts. The significance...

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Lecture 2023

Matienzo in the 2020s

Chris Scaife

British cavers have been visiting Matienzo in northern Spain for decades. This timeless village, home to a bar that never stops serving, sits in an enormous enclosed karst depression known to cavers as the Happy Valley. The number of known caves in the area exceeds 5,000 and the longest systems include the Four Valleys (72km long), Cueva Vallina (37.5km) and...

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Lecture 2023

A month in TAG, drinking & caving !

Paul Fairman

I spent October 2022 Exploring 23 caves in 28 days. Ridiculous to the sublime from helping survey a 150m cave beneath a Cookeville pub to the longest cave in TAG, Helms Deep. Taking in Tag cave fall-in & a long weekend in Kentucky, while there making a new cave.

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Lecture 2023

Mendip Round Up

Duncan Price

What's been going on beneath Mendip since 2019 covering significant discoveries in the Cheddar and Wookey catchments as well the the usual mix of stuff from other caves.

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Lecture 2023

Hot stuff. Looking for hypogenic caves in Southwest England

Andy Farrant

The Bristol-Bath area is host to several thermal springs, including the famous Roman Baths in Bath where about 1.3 million litres of water flow from the springs every day at a temperature of around 40°C. Less well-known springs occur in the Avon Gorge in Bristol. These springs are the outlet for deep hypogenic conduit systems within the Carboniferous limestones that...

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Lecture 2023

England's smallest caving area?

Peter Glanvill

The Quantock Hills in Somerset contain numerous patches of Devonian limestone. The hills have been mined in the past, mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. The only significant known cave system is Holwell Cavern, which has a fascinating history linking (arguably) Frankenstein, the father of powered flight, the discoverer of White Scar Cavern and a former cave...

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Workshop 2023

Cavers' Just a Minute

Peter Glanvill

A bit of light entertainment in Hidden Earth is worthwhile, and has been element at many events over the years. Two previous Hidden Earth events have hosted this famous parlour game( featured for over half a century on Radio Four). Four players are needed to participate. In turn over the period of the session each one must speak on...

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Workshop 2023

The future of Club Journals in the age of social media

Peter Glanvill

In my role as editor of a club magazine the Belfry Bulletin I am finding it increasingly hard to obtain contributions on original exploration - or anything else to be honest. This seems to be becoming an issue in general and seems to pose problems for future generations seeking information. It would perhaps be valuable to share other editors...

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Lecture 2023

More discoveries and future potential in the North York Moors

Matt Ewles

Back in 2020, within weeks of first lockdown ending, we (York Caving Club and North York Moors Caving Club) pumped out a third sump to discover 1km of new passage in Jenga Pot in the North York Moors. This started yet another era of exploration in the ever-expanding Jenga-Excalibur system. This talk will showcase these new extensions and discuss areas...

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Lecture 2023

Otter Hole Cave Film Project

Paul Taylor

In 2010 Paul Taylor with the assistance of Nicky Bayley filmed the late Dave Parker visiting the Hall of Thirty in Otter Hole for the first time. Although others including Sid Perou have filmed in the cave as well Paul felt that there were many aspects of the cave that had either not been covered before or in fact been...

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Lecture 2023

Forest of Dean Round Up

Paul Taylor

The Forest of Dean is not a large caving area and in fact in many respects when compared visually to other caving areas in the country its landscape does not even look like a caving area. Yet it contains the Tenth Longest Cave in the UK Wet Sink (Slaughter Stream Cave) and many others to go with it. Digging has...

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Lecture 2023

Recent Exploration in Northern Thailand

Andy Goddard and Rob Thomas

In 2020 and 2023 two UK/Thai expeditions set out to explore the mountainous regions of Doi Ang Khang, bordering Myanmar in the north west, and in 2023, the Doi Phu Kha National Park close to the Laos border. A key objective of the 2023 expedition was to dive a number of sumps including the upstream sump in Tham Luang Nang...

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Lecture 2023

5 km of new cave in the dales: an a-mazing search for a missing master cave

Fleur Loveridge

Between Reeth and Barnard Castle lies the Stang Forest and a bench of limestone outcrop pitted with shakeholes. This far northeastern corner of the Yorkshire Dales (actually in County Durham) hasn’t always got the attention it deserved. But water sinking in the vicinity is thought to arise some four and half kilometres away in a large resurgence at Roughton...

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Lecture 2023

The New Wave of Paperless Survey Devices

Brendan Hall - Christian Kuhlman

Paperless surveying has been a revolution in recent years, with more and more cavers adopting this method of cave surveying. Despite this affordable cave surveying devices are getting harder to come by. To address this, we’ve been working hard to create the next generation of electronic survey devices. Our talk will explain the process and challenges faced when designing these...

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Lecture 2023

TunnelVR - An easy way to draw 3D surveys that makes sense to people

Julian Todd

Our standard flat 2D survey drawings are unreadable to people who are unfamiliar with the symbols and layout. Even to those familiar with the form, these maps often fail to capture or express the shape and structure of the caves they represent. Nowadays cheap and available Virtual Reality hardware with the Godot games engine makes it possible to...

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Lecture 2023

Using Underwater Photogrammetry to Map the Maria Concordia mine

Marcin Stempniewicz

Cave Diver Marcin Stempniewicz and the Submerged Foundation team have developed a workflow for using photogrammetry to map underwater passages. Their project involves nearly one hundred hours underwater collecting data, hundreds of hours of digital processing and hundreds of thousands of collected photos to develop a high resolution three dimensional photo-realistic digital representation of the mile long mine. This product...

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Lecture 2023

The Ario Reality and other Draughting Rifts

Fleur Loveridge

Perseverance through small rifts and plenty of draught chasing in recent years set up the 2023 expedition to the Ario area of the Western Massif of the Pico de Europa to be an absolute cracker. Over three weeks in June and July the team extended four main caves. The Cave of the Singing Pasteur finally yielding easy shafts and...

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Lecture 2023

Operation Beta - Cave diving in Peak Cavern from 1947 to 1952

Martin Wright

This will be a presentation on the early years of cave diving in Peak Cavern, to coincide with my new book entitled "Pioneers Beneath the Peak: Cave diving exploration in the Peak District", published by Wild Places and which is being launched at Hidden Earth 2023.

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Lecture 2023

The Dachstein Caving Expeditions 2022 and 2023

Dachstein Caving Expeditions

There have been British caving expeditions to the Dachstein plateau in Austria for over 40 years. In this talk, we briefly review the history of the expedition and discuss the results of the 2022 and August 2023 expedition. Covid stopped play in 2020 and 2021, but in 2022 a small contingent headed out to the Wiesberghaus to restart the annual expedition....

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Lecture 2023

Unveiling the Hidden Depths: Subterranean Photogrammetry and 3D Scanning for Cave Surveying, Rescue, and Preservation

Jonathan Lester

Caves hold an enduring allure, captivating humanity with their mystery, beauty, and scientific importance. As our understanding of cave ecosystems and their ecological significance deepens, the need for precise and non-invasive methods for study, exploration, and protection has grown. This seminar highlights groundbreaking advancements in Subterranean Photogrammetry and 3D Scanning, which will revolutionize cave surveying, rescue, and preservation. Delving into the...

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Lecture 2023

Wild World: Izvor Licanke - all in the planning.

Christine Grosart

Since 2015, British cave diver Christine Grosart has been exploring and extending a cave system in Croatia called Izvor Licanke. Despite Covid, the team extended the system to be over 2km long, discovering new dry chambers of gargantuan dimensions. Christine will talk about how the expedition has been going, as well as discussing how to run a trip of this nature...

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Lecture 2023

Nicola Cave Radio developments

Pete Allwright

Provide updates on the Nicola 3 cave radio and information of the Nicola 4 cave radio. Overview of uses in cave rescue and beyond.

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