Latest News
New Council member
September 2025
We’re pleased to welcome Skip Greenwood as a member of the Trust Council. Skip has a background in caving and cave studies, lives near the Centre and teaches sciences. He has been actively involved as a guide for the summer walks for the last 2 years and is already bringing some fresh perspectives to the work of the Trust.
Guided Walks 2025
September 2025
Our summer walks programme ran from 30 July to 28 August 2025 with 20 day walks that included the quarry, limekilns and Bone cave (Joint Mitnor Cave) and 10 evening bat walks.
The walks went well, though with a reduced number of visitors for the day walks, compared with 2024. On the other hand, the bat walks were well-supported and visitors saw large numbers of Greater Horseshoe bats (in contrast with 2024 when few were seen), a significant number of Pipistrelles and the occasional Lesser Horseshoe bat.
The majority of bookings were made in advance through Eventbrite although there was a good number of ocassional visitors. The overall income to the Trust was about 16% lower than in 2024 at abut £1700 (this includes publications, gift sales and donations.)
Our thanks are to the volunteers who agreed to act as guides. The Council is looking to recuruit some additional guides and expects to run a similar pattern of walks in 2025.
Trust library
September 2025
Since its inception in 1962 the Trust has been developing an extensive library of literature related to cave studies in Britain and elsewhere in the world. This was orginally housed in London but, some years ago, was moved to the Centre at Buckfastleigh and a programme of re-cataloguing started.
The library has now grown to a point where it has run out of space. The cataloguing is now made almost impossible by the lack of space and the Council has agreed to start a programme that will re-house the library (still within the Centre) and complete the making and online publication of a full catalogue. We hope soon to be able to publish at least the first section of a catalogue on this website.
The Trust has a new President
June 2025
We are delighted to welcome our new President: Professor Andrew Chamberlain has agreed to join us. The Trust has been very fortunate to have the support of a distinguished line of Presidents: Dr George Black, Harry Pearman and the late Professor Patrick Boylan all brought different experience and expertise, contributing a huge amount to our work. Andrew is no stranger to the Trust and Centre having been involved at several points over the years, most recently by doing the restorative work in Joint Mitnor Cave, following the break-in and theft of bones a few years ago.