Underground team: Chris Scaife, Carolina Smith de la Fuente, Alex Ritchie, Janet Kent
Surface team: Don Miller, Ben Coult, Kelvin McKivitt
I found this cave with Ben Coult on the 14th of February. Walking in an area quite near Fairy Holes, we found some collapse in the boulder clay in a shakehole. I climbed down into the hole and found a very impressive streamway at the bottom, up to 5m high in places.
Two months exactly after this discovery, we returned in greater numbers to survey and see if it could be pushed. While the surface team dug a nearby shakehole, rescued lambs and handled putrid ovine remains, I climbed down into the streamway, followed by Xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandah, Janet and Carolina. We mooched about taking photos in the passage, which is mostly walking height, with a few crawls and some stooping. We then had a look at the downstream end and the stream disappears around an awkward corner, where things soon get too tight. Just before this, there is a flat-out, dry bedding plane. This continues for at least 7m, which is not included in the total length, but is very tight and seems to be blocked ahead. Xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandah and Janet spent a bit of time digging in here while I was surveying with Carolina, but they seemed to think it wasn’t going any further. We headed back out the loose entrance and placed logs over the hole to try to prevent further ovine putrefaction.
Total length: 45m
Depth: 14m
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