Perched on the edge of the Narrow Neck escarpment lies the elusive Psyn Cave. This is one of Katoomba’s easiest to access, yet secluded camping caves. The views are incredible and the cave is sheltered from the elements.
It’s a fun spot to check out by day, or makes for a pretty atmospheric place to spend the night. It’s in the sort of location that you’d usually think is only possible to reach by rock climbing, but is in fact a pretty easy walk from the road. Please remember when visiting the cave to take all rubbish with you and leave it exactly as you found it (or better!).
Here’s how to find Psyn Cave.
How to find Psyn Cave (aka Upper Psyn Cave)
Psyn Cave is only 100m from Narrow Neck Road, but is so well hidden that you’d never know it was there. To find the cave, head along Narrow Neck Road and park at the large lay-by at these coordinates: -33.731682, 150.286019. Remember never to block the fire trail.
Walk back down the road for 20m and look for the small fence. You’ll find a faint path to the left of the nearest end of the fence to the lay-by.
The path is not very obvious and remains indistinct until you reach a small gully, but essentially you need to walk downhill towards the rock shelf for 60m and look for the rocky outcrop in the photo below.
Be very careful when walking down to the outcrop because there are quite a lot of spiky trees that were charred in the bushfires of 2020 and it would be easy to get a nasty scratch. Though you won’t see a defined path you can pick your way downhill easily enough.
Once you’ve got to the rocky outcrop, head to the right (north) and look for a shallow gully - if there’s a steep drop, you’ve gone to the wrong point.
Carefully climb down the rock gully - which is essentially only two steps and you can use the wall on the right to lower yourself down.
The gully when viewed from above
The gully when viewed from below
From here continue very briefly downhill, it’s a worn trail and you can’t go wrong.
You are now just 20m from the cave, the path will curve left and you’ll see the first overhang. You’ll pass along this overhang and then reach the cave. The path along this stretch is all in good condition and there isn’t any tricky terrain.
Exploring Psyn Cave
Psyn Cave is a fairly large overhang and sheltered from the elements by the cave wall and fairly dense bush. Inbetween the trees you get some great views out over the mountains.
There is a small waterfall at the far end which I thought would be a great sound to sleep to, though Joe thought it would be more like Chinese water torture!
The cave has a small table, metal trunk for storing food and small rack with a few bowls and a pan. There’s also a campfire area. It’s an atmospheric spot in a wild setting - it’s hard to convey in photos, but you’re really just a little speck on the edge of a cliff here!
There’s room for a number of tents and they would be largely sheltered from the elements. Just remember to look after the cave and take out all rubbish with you. Please leave the cave exactly as you found it.
Getting to Psyn Cave
Psyn Cave is located directly off Narrow Neck Road in Katoomba. There is room for several cars to pull fully off the road at these coordinates: -33.731682, 150.286019. Never block the fire trail.
It’s just 4km and a 10 minute drive from Katoomba town centre and parking along this stretch of the road is free.
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