Seldom seen, Wales’ answer to the Hall of the Mountain King
PEMBROKESHIRE is famed for its natural beauty, but far below a cliff face on the stunning coast path there is a hidden secret that will take your breath away.
There lies a magical cave, only accessible via a tiny labyrinth that leads to a fantastical netherworld that very few have ever seen.
The mystical surrounds of Ogof Gofan, named after the hermit saint, have remained hidden for a very good reason – it’s extremely difficult to find and even more difficult to enter.
The nearest identifiable landmark is nearby St Govan’s Chapel, itself something of a wonder, built into a cliff near Bosherton. The chapel was built in the 13th century, where it is thought the monk St Govan lived in a cave centuries earlier.
However, while the chapel is accessible with care, the cave needs the skills and expertise of climbing and caving professionals.
A recent expedition into the cave for the BBC Wales programme Hidden Wales with Will Millard revealed not only the difficulty in entering Ogof Gofan, but the rewards to be had when reaching the astonishing cathedral-like structure.
Accompanied on his journey into the cave, Millard was joined by climbing and caving expert Vaisey Bramley, from Pontypridd, who is one of only a few people who have successfully accessed the cave.
Bramley tells Millard the cave is extremely tricky to access, but once inside it’s a religious experience.
There is, however, the little matter of abseiling down a sheer cliff face, then once you’ve lowered yourself down, dangling 60ft in the air, with the treacherous rocks and roaring sea below, you have to then swing in to the cave entrance.
“Without the ropes and harnesses there is no way you could get in there,” says Millard. “Not many people have ever been inside it. Lots of people have looked for it and never found it. It’s not something you stumble upon by accident. “That’s what makes it special.” The cave lay undisturbed for millions of years, until the cave entrance was discovered in 1966.
However, people had been there thousands of years before when the sea was miles away from the cave mouth.
“Originally they would have been storage places or shelters for early Bronze Age neolithic farmers and fishermen,” said Bramley.
“We know this because there are several Bronze Age burial mounds up on the cliff face.”
Accessing a labyrinthine network of tunnels only accessible by the smallest and slimmest through a tiny hole in the cave entrance wall, it’s a tight squeeze – and not one for the faint-hearted or claustrophobic.
Pools of crystal-clear water and stalactites dot your route to the grand prize that lies ahead.
“The rock in the cave was formed from the calcium of the bones of billions of dead sea creatures about 350 million years ago,” said Millard. “Sixty million years after tectonic plates threw up the mountains in Spain and Portugal, which also created the mountains and cliffs of west Wales.”
It takes Millard and Bramley an hour to wriggle through the network of passageways before entering the big black chamber.
When inside it is nothing short of spectacular – hundreds and thousands of delicate stalactites hanging from the ceiling, while from the cave floor grow the biggest stalagmites that Millard has ever seen.
“One stalagmite is wider than an oak tree,” he gasps after spotting this eye-opening structure.
It’s an awe-inspiring sight, nothing like you would ever normally see on earth. It looks like they’ve landed in a fantasy netherworld – more suited to Middle-earth or a faraway planet than here in Wales.
The cave is lit up and the sight is magical. The walls of the cave are full of the most amazing formations.
“That’s why you do it, to come to places like this,” says Bramley. “You have years and years of exploring beautiful places then you come to somewhere like this, the exceptional places.
“It’s one of those places that has to be seen.”
Millard adds: “It’s extraordinary. It’s one of the most beautiful natural places I’ve ever been to in my life. The human existence is such a fleeting thing compared to this. It puts life into perspective.”
Bramley puts the experience of witnessing Ogof Gofan in all its unspoilt beauty in perspective.
He said: “It happened in the aeons of time long before man arrived. This was being created and we’re allowed this little window of time to view it all, and it will continue long after our days.
“That so few people have ever seen it makes it even more special.”
Millard summed up how we all must feel after being privy to that knowledge of what lurks beneath one of the most popular holiday destinations in Wales.
“All the times I’ve been to Pembrokeshire and it’s all been about the cliffs, the coast path, the crashing waves, and now I know there is something absolutely astonishing beneath my feet.”