Clearwell Caves — Attraction in Forest of Dean

We recently visited Clearwell Caves as a family (my wife, our 13-year-old son, and I), having searched for local attractions in the area. While it’s a smaller-scale experience compared to places like Wookey Hole, it absolutely held its own — and we had a fantastic time.

Our visit coincided with Back to the Cave – The Full Spectrum, an international modern and contemporary sculpture exhibition cleverly woven through the cave system. I’m not usually one for contemporary art, but once you lean into the experience, it really enhances the visit. What could’ve felt like a quirky add-on turned out to be a thought-provoking and immersive addition.

A quick note on tickets: the website encourages visitors to pre-book time slots — something I’ve disliked since the COVID era — but on the day, everyone ahead of us in the queue was paying on the door without issue. It seems you can just turn up, which I much prefer.

There was also a child-friendly questionnaire and competition linked to the exhibition. At first glance, it seemed easily skippable — but it ended up drawing us in and actually deepened our engagement with both the caves and the art. A smart touch that our son really appreciated.

The tour itself took a good amount of time — around 2 to 2.5 hours in total — and left us feeling like we’d had a proper outing. At the end, there’s a charming little gift shop with the usual selection of crystals, rocks, books, and curios. One small gripe: no pin badges! (Take note, Clearwell team — they're in high demand with the younger crowd, according to my son.)

There’s a small on-site café, which was welcome given the rainy weather during our visit. Parking was a bit tight, so do arrive early if you can.

We didn’t try the additional caving experience, but it looked like a great option for those feeling more adventurous.

All in all, Clearwell Caves offers a unique and rewarding visit — atmospheric, engaging, and well worth the trip, especially if you're open to something a...

We recently had the pleasure of visiting Clearwell Caverns on a rainy autumnal day. We bought tickets online which for a family of four were around £30. We sat in the cafe to grab a very nice coffee and exceedingly good selection of cakes. The cafe was nice inside, charming, with a roaring fire and adorned with historic minig artifacts.

The caves themselves are a fascinating glimpse into the area's rich mining history and geological wonders. It is a self guided tour that has plenty of information panels to read, and you can wander around at your own leisure and take your time. There are lots of relics from the mine's history spread throughout the caves including tools and equipment used by miners throughout the centuries, offering a fascinating look into the past. We spent a happy 90 minutes wandering back and forth, taking photos and exploring. The place was mercifully free from loads of "WARNING" signs and was well lit, so at times it really did feel atmopsheric without too much modern stuff to distract from the ambience. It was all pretty easy going underfoot, and apart from a few low sections that you could bash your head on, was perfectly safe and easy to navigate.

The gift shop had plenty of cool bits and pieces for the kids to hassle us about, and we did end up getting a few souvenirs.

The staff were friendly, and the facilities were clean and well-maintained. If you're in the Forest of Dean area, a visit to Clearwell Caverns is worth doing. It's an enchanting journey into the heart of the Earth, and a reminder of the wonders that nature and human...

Visited the caves on the way back home. Turned up on the off chance and I was able to buy a ticket at the entrance.

I really enjoyed my time here. There is a lovely cafe on site and a small children's play area. I could see there was a slide but not sure what else was in it. Before you enter the caves there is a museum section which was great. The caves themselves go 100ft below the surface and it takes around an hour to walk through at a leisurely pace. I was taking lots of photos so lost track of time. I thought the caves were beautiful, and there was lots of information along the route about their history. I especially loved the art installations and the bat audio. I could hear the bats earlier on in another chambers and wondered about them. So that was a lovely confirmation and nice touch to the experience to have a feature about them. Its quite deceptive as you can't really gauge from the outside how big the site is. So its a lovely suprise to find the tunnels and chambers go on for a fair while. Longer than you anticipate. On coming out of the tunnels you leave via a little gift shop, stocked with treasures to remember your visit by.

I did not realise you could go deep caving here until I was looking at the reviews when just about to leave this one. So maybe thats something that's just advertised on the website which...