This illustrated talk will briefly outline the evolution of cave exploration in Britain, then present a survey of Scotland’s rich natural heritage of underground spaces which, although they occur in many different types of rock, will be focussed principally on inland limestone cave systems. Future potential will also be discussed.

Speaker: Alan Jeffreys founded Scotland’s national caving society – the Grampian Speleological Group – in 1961, and the Scottish Cave Rescue Organisation in 1966. He has pursued his hobby all over the world as well as in the UK, making important discoveries at home and abroad. He is obsessive about finding and recording Scotland’s natural underworld, having pioneered the club’s series of regional guides and authored several publications about Scottish caves. In 1989 he was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to crime prevention and cave rescue and, despite advanced age, continues to seek out and explore new caves wherever they might be.