Aygill Caverns

Steve, James, Ami, Pete

Four intrepid(ish) explorers met up at Bull Pot Farm on a lovely clear night. A little stargazing before kitting up and setting off to find the entrance. We soon found ourselves heading up river, passing a hole on the way that had enough water going into it to suggest things might get on the damp side later.

The entrance located it seemed wise to just get on with it, not least because at least in there we’d warm up. The description on the CNCC site fails to mention how easy it is to crawl right past the first climb up, which we duly did. This mistake was soon noticed and rectified. There was just enough room at the top of the climb to get ourselves back in order and head off into more crawling. Before long we where down pitch number 1. Onwards and downwards we went, the crawling gave way to being able to stand up – albeit in a rather snug rift. I made a miscalculation here and was facing the wrong way which definitely made it tighter than I liked, One day I’ll remember which way I bend best I expect.

The second pitch lands next to the streamway and on some beautiful marble. James wasn’t wrong when he said it was like what you might find in a high end kitchen.  The stream was flowing nicely and after a quick recce by Steve, and some admiration of the water whizzing past we decided that our best option was to head upstream a bit. This we did and stayed drier than I expected, although wellies were filled. All too soon we reached a point where the way on was going to involve a low wet crawl and it was time to turn around.

A brief photo stop on the way back and we headed for the surface. Thanks Steve for organising this one, which definitely merits a return trip (if you missed it this time you should come).