History

4,500+ YEARS OF MINING HISTORY IN AN AMAZING CAVE SYSTEM

For thousands of years ochre (colour) and iron ore has been mined at Clearwell Caves. You can still meet Freeminers here; for millennia they have practised their ancient Forest of Dean birth-right to produce colour and iron ore here at Clearwell.

Clearwell Caves were first opened to the public in 1968 when Ray Wright began opening the caverns to visitors. Ray’s son Jonathan was registered as a Freeminer in 1981 and joined Ray full time in 1984.
Jonathan studied for his M&Q Mine Deputy Certificate at the last mining course held at Cinderford Mining and Technical College (‘the MinTech’), between 1986/7. Jonathan is now President of the Royal Forest of Dean. Today he manages Clearwell Caves with his artist wife, Heather.

Sadly since 2015 Ray is no longer with us, but the Caves continue as a tribute to Ray and Jonathan’s deep knowledge of the Forest of Dean, it’s rich history and culture. At Clearwell Caves you can explore impressive natural caverns worked for iron ore and ‘colour’ (ochre) by Freemining families over the centuries. The Caves offer a unique opportunity for visitors to experience the atmospheric workings with exciting displays throughout. A visit to Clearwell Caves lets you see a major part of the Forest of Dean’s long history where ‘colour’ has been extracted continuously since the Stone Age over 4,500 years ago, through to the present day. Although large scale mining finished in 1945, the Caves still produce ‘colour’ on a small scale, continuing this central strand of the Forest of Dean story.

Once you have explored the caverns open to the public, you can go beyond, on exciting caving activities run occasionally into the Deep Levels of the mine.

Paranormal

This is one to the uk’s most haunted cave systems and Spectral nights have been given exclusive access to the caves the first time in 20 years.

How lucky are we to be given this chance you could be lucky too! Book your place now be the first to document and witness the caves paranormal phenomena.

There have been many mysterious sightings of an old miner underground here, the miners knew him as the Old Man. Mists have been seen and shadows. Our equipment went off in several areas. Pressure felt in the head and ringing in the ears. Oppressive feel when walking further in to the caves. Children have been heard and if you listen in the dark stillness you can hear spectral miners still at work.