EarthCache (geology-only geocache) as a visitor route for a heritage walk: GATE

Checked 31 Oct 2026. Primary sources were read directly: GSA EarthCache page and its 10 guidelines, and the Geocaching.com hiding guidelines (the EarthCache, commercial and event sections). Status: a free route, but a gated one. An EarthCache cannot sell, link or advertise, and it must teach geology rather than history.

What it is (read)

• An EarthCache is "an earth science lesson that requires a visit to a unique geological feature". It has no container and no logbook (Geocaching.com guidelines). Geocaching HQ partners with the Geological Society of America (GSA), which oversees the programme.
• The 10 GSA guidelines include these: it must give an earth science lesson; it must be educational and highlight a unique feature; it must be somewhere geocachers may enter; it may cover one site or several. To log it, visitors must do site-specific tasks: they observe something and send the owner the answers. The text must be in the local language. Use text and images only with permission. Leave No Trace applies. It is submitted through Geocaching.com and checked by volunteer reviewers.
• It costs nothing to build. Unlike the Adventure Lab, which needs Premium (US$39.99/yr; see geocaching-adventure-lab-heritage-trail-gate-premium-5-stops.md), a free Basic account can submit one. HQ encourages finding at least 20 caches before hiding one. Caches must last 3+ months and be available most of the week. The 161 m spacing rule does not apply to EarthCaches, because they have no physical waypoint.
• Built-in demand: GSA's EarthCache Master awards. Bronze needs 3+ EarthCaches logged in 2+ countries. Silver needs 6 in 3 countries plus 1 developed. Gold needs 12 in 4 plus 2 developed. Platinum needs 20 in 5. Cachers travel to collect them, and a Wales EarthCache counts as a separate country for UK and visiting cachers. The first EarthCache, GCHFT2, is still promoted by Geocaching HQ ("280 million years").

The hard gate (read, commercial guidelines)

Commercial content is forbidden. That means "overtones of advertising, marketing, or promotion". The page may not ask the finder to go inside a business or buy a product. It may not carry names, links or logos of businesses or commercial products, or links or logos of organisations unless they are needed for permission. => No shop link, no e-book mention, and no link to cedwyn.bucklerfamily.estate on the cache page. The page has to stand on its own merit, and the reviewer will reject a lesson that is really about history. The value is indirect: visitors come to the place, and a heritage walk that starts at the same spot can pick them up on the ground. Owner logs and Event Caches (no product sales beyond geocaching trackables) are covered by the same rules.

Numbers

• Primary pages give no traffic figures per cache. The Adventure Lab skill already holds the community scale (50k+ Adventures). Engagement must be measured after the fact: logs per month appear publicly on the cache page.
• Local saturation was not checked in detail. There is already a Wales Coast Path Adventure Lab between Penarth and Sully. Before writing, check the Play map (EarthCache filter) for Penarth Head / Lavernock / Sully, because a duplicate feature is likely to be rejected.

How to do it (steps)

1. Choose a real geological feature that is legal to visit, on or next to the walk route. Check the Play map for existing EarthCaches within about 1 km on the same feature.
2. Get permission if it is managed land (council foreshore, nature reserve). GSA's FAQ explains why a virtual cache can still need permission.
3. Write the lesson in plain English at its core, with Welsh as well, since the text must be in the local language. Include 2-4 observation tasks that can only be answered on site (e.g. measure bed thickness, name the colour change, count fossil bands). Do not make the photo the only task.
4. Credit sources for images and geology facts, and use only images we own or are licensed to use.
5. Submit from an account. This is the blocker for us: it needs a geocaching account (Basic is free), and by HQ's advice ideally one with 20+ finds. That is a new account, which this run may not open, and the owner must be someone who will do maintenance (answer log questions within a reasonable time).
6. Measure: logs per month on the cache page, and walkers who mention it, by asking "how did you hear?" at walk bookings.

How we apply it to Cedwyn

• PROPOSAL only. It needs a person-owned geocaching account and visits to the site to write accurate observation tasks. That is the project lead's decision, plus a local volunteer. Zero spend.
• The geology must be real. Penarth/Lavernock/Sully coastal cliffs (Triassic to Jurassic strata) are the plausible features near Llandough/Leckwith. Inland at Great House itself there is probably no qualifying "unique feature" (not checked). Do not bend the lesson towards the land history: that would be rejected as off-topic, and it would put contested narrative on a third-party page.
• Never put the shop, the e-book, the family or the case on the cache page. The only tie-in allowed is the walk's own start-point signage and its own pages, which may say "near the X EarthCache" (our own page, no rule against it). Check every public text against the site's banned-word list.
• Kill rule: under 5 logs in the first 90 days means no further effort.

Sources

• geosociety.org (10 guidelines, Master award levels; read 31 Oct 2026)
• geocaching.com (EarthCache definition, commercial content rules, events, 3-month minimum; read 31 Oct 2026)
• geocaching.com (cache types; read)
• GCHFT2 "first EarthCache" promotion, Geocaching HQ Facebook (search preview only)
• labs.geocaching.com (Penarth-Sully Adventure, search preview only)

Raw Markdown: earthcache-geology-lesson-heritage-walk-gate-no-commercial-links.md · version and changes: changelog · machine index: agents.json