Fermanagh ’26
Mon 4th – Sat 9th May 2026
Scott, Maz, Damian, Chris H, John, Miranda, Vikki & Ray, with guest appearances by local caver Ray Bell
The 2nd triennial KCC trip to Ireland took place in May 2026. Our destination this time was Fermanagh, having visited the Burren back in 2023. As in ’23, we were blessed with glorious weather once again. I don’t know what the chances of that are, but I suspect we’re guaranteed biblical flooding on our next trip.
Accommodation options in the area appear to be somewhat limited, so I’d booked us into the Cladagh Glen Scout Centre. The centre sleeps 28, but we were only 8 (and 2 of those were sleeping in their vans). Would we have to share with a load of scouts? Thankfully not! We had sole use of the place. This did mean we rattled about a bit, but it was very comfortable and well-equipped for cavers, i.e. there was a hose and a drying room. Actually, there was a lot more than that, including a well-equipped kitchen, spacious lounge and outdoor seating. Sleeping was in 4 bunk rooms. 2 of these were smaller (3 or 4 beds) and en suite, so Vikki and I quickly grabbed one, while Miranda and John pounced on the other. That left a 10ish-bed bunk room each for Scott and Damian. Not sure if they tried a different bed every night as I would have done.
I think we all travelled over by ferry (Cairnryan-Belfast), but at wildly different times. Chris, John & Miranda travelled in Chris’s van a couple of days early and took in some of the north coast on the way. Damian travelled alone and went straight to the scout centre, although Elaine came over to meet him after for a week touring around N Ireland. Vikki and I spent a few days with my family near Belfast at the start and the end of the trip.
Maz & Scott were just there for the caving, travelling over on the midnight ferry and heading straight for Polticoghlan in South Leitrim for some reason – no I’d never heard of it either. As it turns out, this was a futile excursion as they had infinitely less tackle than required (it needing some, whereas they had none). Undeterred, they decamped to the eminently more suitable White Fathers cave for a bit of a wade and a short swim.
Meanwhile, the rest of us had started arriving at the entrance to Cladagh Glen, where our accommodation was situated. John, Miranda and Chris were first to arrive, only to find the gate to the glen firmly padlocked. That wasn’t in the script! Not to worry, we had the combination to a key safe up at the centre. Luckily that gave access to the scout centre building, in which they located a further bunch of keys. Fortunately one of these fitted the lock on the gate and we were back in business.
Everyone else arrived in quick succession, almost like it was planned. We had 2 visitors on the first evening. First, Robin (the scout centre warden) arrived to talk us over some admin stuff and generally offer helpful advice. Next, our local caving expert, Ray Bell, popped over to introduce himself, offer the loan of some equipment (the buoyancy aids were particularly useful) and say that he should be free to cave with us on the Wednesday and Friday. Cheers both!
Cavingwise, the week panned out as follows (see some specific trip reports later):
Mon – White Fathers (Scott & Maz)
Tue – Marble Arch (All KCC)
Wed – Noon’s (Scott, KCC Ray & local Ray), White Fathers (Vikki, Maz, Damian, Chris, Miranda & John)
Thurs – Boho Cave & Lower Ravine Cave (Chris, Damian, Scott, Maz, Vikki & KCC Ray)
Fri – Pollnagollum of the Boats (Vikki, Maz, Damian, Scott & local Ray)
Sat – Upper Cradle & Pollasumera (Maz & Scott)
This is the area where I first started caving, back in the early 1980s, so I’d done most of the caves before, although not since leaving N Ireland almost 40 years ago. To say that my memories are vague would be a considerable understatement. Many things I have absolutely no memory of whatsoever. In some cases, I had very vivid memories of particular cave sections, but they turned out to be fiction. Crab Passage in Marble Arch is one example. I remembered it well, having passed through it many, many times (including a practice ICRO rescue where we tried to get a stretcher through it). My memory is of something akin to the Crabwalk in Giants Hole, albeit a bit shorter and not quite so high. In reality it’s no longer than a couple of body lengths and not much taller than me. And where did that spiral climb down immediately after it come from??
One thing I did remember well enough was how wet many of the caves are. It’s definitely wetsuit territory, so all but me had come suitably equipped. Not owning a wetsuit, I took the opportunity to miss the wettest trips. As mentioned earlier, local Ray had lent us some buoyancy aids. They certainly came in handy in Pollnagollum of the Boats.
A slight disappointment re caving on this particular trip was that some of the caves were temporarily inaccessible. Cascades was blocked by a landslip, Shannon was off the cards due to lambing and Pollaraftra (my first ever cave) is off-limits due to a breakdown in relations with the landowner. We still had plenty to go at though.
In terms of nightlife, the area doesn’t really compare to our Doolin trip 3 years ago. We had heard that local cavers drink in Frank Eddie Maguire’s in Blacklion, so we popped along there one evening, only to find it closed. We ended up in some grim pub back along the road a bit. I can’t remember what it was called, but we didn’t hurry back. To be honest, we couldn’t go back there anyway due to embarrassment over Maz, Miranda and John’s pool playing. Later in the week we went to Maguire’s just over the bridge in Belcoo for a meal and a few beers. That was a very pleasant evening. Apart from that, we mostly drank wine and sloe gin back at the scout centre.
This was a great few days. If we do go back to the same area, I would certainly book the scout centre again. I would also be tempted to explore more widely, into Leitrim and Sligo. Thanks again to Robin and, particularly, to local Ray for all his help with the caving side of things.
Polticoghlan, Co Leitrim (4th May) – Scott & Maz
Report by Maz
Our Ireland caving trip began early in the morning on the shores of Loch Neagh. We’d travelled late in the evening and need to get some sleep before finding a cave to explore. So, after spending the night together in the back of my van, Scott and I decided we would go exploring.
We’d looked at various possibilities on the Caves of Ireland website and narrowed it down to somewhat out of the way “Polticoughlan.” “Access is restricted” our information warned, but we figured we’d have a recce and see the lie of the land. Parking up, Scott used a combination of map reading and educated guesswork to sight the location of the cave; about half a kilometre downhill through a felled plantation.
On with the gear and soon we had enough contours behind us to drop into fold in the ground away from prying eyes. After navigating a series of barbed wire fences and undergrowth, we found the gulley that led into the first pitch. Scott duly scrambled down to check out the anchors. A few minutes later he came back with the somewhat disappointing news that the anchors were old, the rock friable and the naturals non existent. Not ideal and this is led to a retreat and a plan B.
White Fathers’ Cave (4th May) – Scott & Maz
Report by Maz
Between texting Ray to cancel our call out time, and his response, we settled on another cave to explore; White Fathers. Having duly parked up, Ray’s acknowledgement of the change of plan came through and he suggested White Fathers. I took this opportunity to inform him of our location. The cave is but a few yards from the car park and soon we were in the streamway. We headed up briefly to investigate 30 or so yards of tunnel only to turn around and follow the path to the obvious entrance to the second cave. This was more like it. It was an attractive large twisting stream through decorated passage. Sometimes ankle deep, sometimes waist deep, there were impressive formations, especially considering its proximity to the road. Soon the roof opened and we were in daylight for a few seconds before entering cave three. Again, more of the same, albeit in slightly wetter conditions. As we rounded another meander, we noticed a light coming towards us. This it turned out was not just any other caver, it was Tim Fogg, author of the guidebook we were using and a legend in these parts. I’d read about the zombie spiders recently discovered in the region and he was able to confirm this was the said location of them. He gave us a description of what to look out for. It didn’t help me much, spiders fall into 2 categories, small or F$%$^%$G HUGE. After saying our goodbyes we continued along the deepening stream. With the exit in sight the floor dropped away and we were resigned to swimming a few metres to the end. Tim had informed up to climb out of the right bank and follow the prison fence home. White Fathers’ cave goes under an old priory. With the exit of the monks in the 1970s, the site was converted and now houses a prison for low risk inmates. The obvious observations about the guards not having watched Shawshank Redemption rang in our heads and we walked along the outside of the very tall and heavily razor wired fence. It was an unusual end to the day!
Marble Arch (5th May) – Chris, John, Miranda, Damian, Scott, Maz, Vikki & KCC Ray
Report by Ray
This is a must do trip, so obviously we did it. As most will be aware, it’s a show cave – and a pretty good one too. John & Miranda can attest to this as they did the tourist trip later in the week. But no tourism for us today. Our goal was well beyond the show cave. As such, there was a certain amount of admin to be done before we were allowed in. So we arrived bright and early at 9am to begin form filling. We had previously been told that there is a limit of 6 people on each non-tourist trip. In reality, there turned out to be no such restriction and they didn’t care that there were 8 of us.
Forms filled and caving kit donned, we were given a master key to the various gates we were likely to encounter. As it turned out, we only actually encountered 1 gate where the key could be used, so I’m not quite sure what was masterful about it. I did, however, feel very powerful with it in my pocket!
We were also very kindly escorted to a suitable entrance by Sean, one of the staff and an active caver himself. It turned out to be just as well that we had such a guide as the path to our entrance was particularly overgrown, such that we would have struggled to find it ourselves. This does raise the question of who actually uses said entrance. Is it reserved for visiting parties from across the water, while local cavers simply go in via the show cave entrance?
Either way, I believe it was the ICC entrance we used. It looked vaguely familiar, so I think it’s the entrance I used to take back in the day. It’s essentially a slot at the top of a boulder choke, followed by a long climb down through the choke, via various constrictions and larger sections. Nothing too awkward. Route finding on the climb down was easy enough, but we took a wrong turn at the bottom. Turning left, we were first forced to crawl and then dumped in a particularly unpleasant wet passage, terminating in what looked suspiciously like a sump. Not what we were expecting.
Retracing our steps to the bottom of the climb and heading the other direction very quickly led to a gate. Aha – a use for my all-powerful key. Sure enough, it unlocked the way to the show cave and the treasures beyond. A quick stop to allow a tourist party to pass and we were stomping along the very pleasant show cave. I particularly like the “Moses Walk”, where a dry trench has been constructed through a lake. Why can’t this be done in all caves?
Sadly, just after the Moses Walk, the show cave came to an end. Ducking through the fence, we were soon faced with having to cross the chest-deep river without the aid of a dry trench. No problem to most of the party, but a real pain for me, particularly with such an uneven bottom (the passage, that is).
Once across the river, a muddy passage led to a climb up though boulders into Organ Chamber, followed by the fun of Crab Passage, a narrow sideways slither. Somewhere along this section, various members of the party fell by the wayside, leaving Vikki, Scott, Maz and I to forge on. And it sure was worth forging on. A corkscrew climb down and a short bit of passage led to the humungous Skreen Hill 2. Very impressive indeed. A quick romp upstream brought us, all too quickly, to a sump.
Turning back downstream, we passed our point of entry and headed up Legnabrocky Way. This started modestly enough and passed some low sections, including the “Wet Wiggle”, but eventually opened up into fine proportions once again. Alas, as with all good things, the fine proportions eventually dwindled. We crawled for some distance, but eventually gave up at a well-decorated grotto up on the left. A good place for a chat and some breath catching.
Satisfied, we turned around and made our way back towards the show cave. There were some fun and games getting me back across the deep water, mostly involving the use of Maz as a flotation aid, but otherwise it all seemed to go smoothly enough.
In the show cave, we tried the first set of steps leading up as a means of rapid exit. This led through a couple of unlocked gates (no need for superkey here), emerging into daylight, only to be stopped by a very large wooden gate and fence just short of the visitor centre. Alas, there was nowhere to stick superkey on this side of the gate. So, back down we went. Being keen to find an easier way out, we followed the show cave to the point where a boat was necessary, but no way out. In the end there was nothing for it but to retrace our steps back up through the ICC entrance, which was pretty easy. We then celebrated a very enjoyable trip by visiting the on-site cafe, where Scott treated us all to tea/coffee and cake.
Noon’s Hole, (6th of May)
Present: Ray M, Ray B, Scott
Report by Scott
I’d read a bit about Noon’s Hole in one of Martin Farr’s books, so I was quite keen to join the two Rays for a look up close. It turned out initially to be a Yorkshire – style open pot, with the first pitch of about 35m descending alongside a waterfall. At a big ledge the pitch bifurcates and the water sods off elsewhere. Ray M (Original Local Ray?) rigged this and the next pitch under the watchful eye of Ray B (New Fangled Local Ray?), plus the next one for good measure. When I arrived with the rope for the following pitch the familiar solid resin anchors seemed to evaporate, to be replaced by an invigorating mixture of spits, stealth black expansion bolts that were virtually invisible, resin anchors that actually moved in and out of the hole when pulled, and a lovely solid drilled thread that was unfortunately completely blocked with a rotten, mouldering piece of tat. Despite this, I quite enjoyed rigging the next couple of pitches, and soon we were standing at the foot of a parallel shaft with some tight – looking rifty passages leading off to who-knows-where?
Well, Ray B obviously knew, and soon we were making awkward, strenuous progress into the Earth’s crust. After a while the message came through that Ray M was withdrawing to sunnier climes, and Ray B and I continued through a maze of sharp limestone passages, eventually coming to ‘Crucifixion Crawl’.
This was a bit of a misnomer, as at no point did we have to assume that particular position made iconic by, er, Jim Morrison. Instead it was a half-Superman pose in a confined rifty tube for a few meters.
This completed, the cave opened up a bit and formations were enjoyed in a kind of hading muddy rift with water in the bottom. Soon it was necessary to crawl through this water, which was actually a welcome bit of temperature regulation at the time. The passage became walking height, a kind of torpid streamway which eventually ended at a sump.
After a quick roll-up, Ray B suggested that we head up Inlet 5 for an explore, which was in the general direction of the dry connection with Arch Cave. We climbed an impressive flowstone cascade in only our wetsocks to avoid muddying the calcite, then waded through a couple of pools before meeting a boulder choke. This had apparently defeated Ray in the past, but this time he spotted the correct exit and wormed through to emerge in the large, muddy breakdown chamber / passage known as Chamber Passage.
A bit of slithering and poking around yielded a way on, and Ray disappeared for a look while I waited in the big stuff, trying not to look at the distressingly unstable ceiling. By the sound of it, Ray can’t have been far off from the dry connection to Arch when he returned!
We retraced our steps, eventually climbing out of the big hole into bright sunshine. I had ample time on the ascent to consider Ray B’s anecdote about ascending this pitch in a flood, passing out under the waterfall because he hadn’t been able to breathe enough on the way up, then coming to on the rope and jugging the rest of the way up in a bit of a panic with a thumping headache… Our trip was a bit more relaxed.
Ray M treated us to a pint in the very local, local pub on the way back. Thanks again to both Rays for an excellent day out!
Boho Cave (7th May) – Chris, Damian, Scott, Maz, Vikki & KCC Ray
Report by Ray
Boho Cave is somewhere you definitely don’t want to be in wet weather as it floods “rapidly and almost completely”. Ouch. As we had glorious weather, however, we decided to go for it. Now, it turns out there’s a rather large gap between deciding to do it and actually doing it. For us, that gap was largely filled with the not insignificant task of finding it.
We parked up outside the Linnet Inn, got changed and walked towards the rather large wooded area pointed out by local Ray the day before on our return trip from Noon’s. Said wooded area is unfortunately rather large and overgrown. Chris headed in, followed by Vikki and then me. I think the others headed further along the road. Eventually we found the dry river bed, near an old bridge. This is where it went wrong as we headed downstream. We climbed down a waterfall. At the bottom, I carried on downstream, passing a few cave entrances, but nothing that looked like what we were looking for.
By the time I’d returned to near the bottom of the waterfall, the party had reassembled and were looking at a likely entrance. Again, it didn’t really look like what we were after, but we set off in anyway. Progress was initially easy, but a climb up to the left led into endless crawling over particularly knee-wrecking chert. Eventually sense prevailed and we turned around. A much more rigorous reading of the area description revealed this to actually be Lower Ravine Cave. Aha! From this we were able to deduce that we needed to head back upstream. First we passed Upper Ravine Cave (do not enter as this is a major bat roost… at least it was in 1997), then we climbed the dry waterfall and passed Waterfall Cave. Passing under the bridge spotted earlier by Chris, the very obvious Quarry Entrance to Boho Cave was difficult to miss!
Maz left his keys here and in we went. Some very pleasant walking passage brought us to the Main Sink entrance before long. We popped our heads out here and spotted that the road was very close indeed, with no dense undergrowth to negotiate. This was clearly the way to exit later. Sorry Maz!
Popping back in, we headed north in search of Formation Passage and Coleraine Chamber. Somehow, we ended up in Calcite Crawls instead, necessitating (as the name would suggest) crawling, sometimes over a smooth calcite floor. What the name doesn’t suggest is that this section is a bit on the snug side. Pressing on regardless, things eased at an enlargement, before another smaller section broke into the relative vastness of Henry’s Hall. Beyond this, the going was relatively easy. Eventually we entered the Maze, a very complex area of maze cave.
Thinking that we had come along Formation Passage, we couldn’t understand where the Pilaster and Coleraine Chamber were and why the Maze seemed to be taking us right, instead of left. Our mistake only dawned on us later after detailed study of the survey back at the scout centre and was confirmed in discussion with local Ray.
We pushed the Maze as far as we dared, basically until we reached the limit of our ability to remember the various junctions. It turns out that, if we had carried on a bit further, we probably would have come across the Pilaster and realised our mistake. This would have given us a much easier route back to the surface. As it was, however, we had to retrace our steps back to the Main Sink, where Damian, Scott and Chris took the easy route back to the cars. As Vikki and I had come with Maz, it seemed only fair to accompany him back to the Quarry Entrance to retrieve his keys. Here we made another mistake. Instead of returning back through the cave to Main Sink for the easy route to the cars, we decided to head back through the undergrowth. We’re not very bright.
Boho Cave was a big hit with all and the great news is that we have a reason to go back as there’s lots more to see in there.
Pollnagollum of the Boats (8th May) – Vikki, Maz, Scott, Damian & local Ray
Report by Vikki
Equipment – wetsuits advised, buoyancy aid if required. 10 metres handline to leave in situ in the entrance choke, a second short rope 8 metres to set up a sitting belay with a couple of handholds on the return leg to surmount smoother flow when climbing to avoid the water around lake 3.
A long-standing ambition for Damian saw us all descend once again after our initial thwarted attempt on 6th May, this time following our local caving expert Ray which avoided any route finding issues.
Walk over the stile in the fence down and enter to the left at the bottom of the shake hole. Leaving daylight behind initially drop through a boulder choke and then descend with the help of a handline down over a block keeping the smoother wall on your right. The lower 2 blocks each undercut the top one above affording good footholds and is straightforward with the handline. Then descend through a series of blocks to the main cave which opens up before you – spectacular.
The first lake comes into view which is protected by a hand traverse for those not wanting to swim the 30m. On exit to a sandy beach look behind and now to your left to see a sump which is currently being explored by divers. Into the main chamber pass a rope in situ (no re-belay) which leads to the higher level windows chamber if desired. Above you in the main chamber are some impressive stalactites. Continue along the passage to view some fine flowstone formations and enter the short second lake which can be waded through.
The 3rd lake begins with lower water along a shelf, beyond which is deep and requires swimming. Continue in the passage where the roof descends and leads eventually to a duck at the far end. In the low water conditions, we experienced the duck was about a foot long. Ray went through then reached back and grabbed the shoulder of my buoyancy aid pulling me first followed by Scott. The duck maybe avoided by climbing steeply over boulders and descending the other side. There is a sump to the right-hand side.
Onwards to the 4th lake which is long and thin. It eventually closes down and is divided by a thin flake. Keep to the left side of the flake to avoid getting your head stuck between the passage walls on the right. Eventually the way on is blocked by boulders and the final sump passage can be seen on the left.
It is then possible to return taking higher ground around lakes 4, 3 and 2. The water can drain from your wetsuits allowing you to warm up as you now negotiate the boulders and climb around and above lakes 4, 3 and 2 before finally returning the same way as you entered via lake 1. The climb around the 3rd lake make require someone to ascend the flowstone which looks slippery but actually affords good grip, nevertheless the leader in the party may want to ascend and set up a short sitting belay to assist the remainder of the party. Eventually you emerge climbing back the same way you entered through the choke to the foot of the handline and back out to day light.
Photos by Maz
Pollasumera (9th May) – Scott & Maz
Report by Maz
Saturday saw the exodus for 5 out of 8 cavers. I’d booked a late night ferry leaving Scott and I twelve or so hours to go caving. After Google searching and guidebook reading we settled on Pollasumera. The description wasn’t good, our map wasn’t good and the map in the car park didn’t resemble anything we had. A quick walk up the hill and we spied the obvious shake hole. It didn’t fit one of our three sources of navigation but as Meatloaf said….
After kitting up, we headed off to the hole. Sadly it proved a non starter so we were left scouring the hillside making the land fit the map and vice versa. After an hour and numerous possibles we were on the verge of giving up. Luckily Scott had one final hunch and it proved correct. “Pollasumera” is a stream cave and the guidebook warned against flooding. Inside it had that eerie rotten smell and feel of something that has a regular soaking. Sandbars, cobbles and vegetation in the roof led to a stoop which had the feel of a sump about it. “Lakes” in the description were little more than muddy pools and soon we got to the beginning of a crawl. I wasn’t keen, but Mr Motivated said he’d have a look but his didn’t expect much. Sure enough, his predication came true a short way in and Scott reported a blockage that he wasn’t prepared to excavate. To get an idea of this of this cave, think Tub Holes in Dentdale but shorter. On the return we found a stranded frog. Not wanting to squish the panicked amphibian we relocated him/her into my dry box and a free return to the surface. A job well done I’d say.
Upper and Lower Cradle Holes (9th May) – Scott & Maz
Report by Maz
After the success of “Pollasumera” we still had time to squeeze in another cave. We headed off towards Marble Arch in the optimistic hope of finding Upper and Lower Cradle. Armed with a similar amount of navigational aids, we found a pull in, roughly halfway along the show cave track. Downhill into the valley, we had a peer into a very likely looking hole. It was, however, not to be, and we both felt that we might be unsuccessful on this one. Upstream or downstream? We rolled the dice and went downstream only to find another potential hole a short distance away. Into the shakehole and we followed the cavers track to a large looking entrance. On a boulder beside the track was a memorial to 3 young cavers who’d been killed in an accident here in the 1990s. Scrambling down we were stopped when we found a locked gate. The guidebook had said nothing about this and it was only later we realised it had been published before the accident. We scrambled over a boulder to find another locked gate and chain link fencing covering all possible entry holes. One cave down and one to go. We slithered back up the path and down towards the second entrance we’d seen. This time there was no locked gate and we dropped into a nice stream passage complete with formations. Soon alas, the stream disappeared into a choke and in front of us lay what we took to be a lake. NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE!!! The description and what we could see just didn’t tally, as it hadn’t for the first entrance. Back we went to our entry point and followed it upstream. This was more like it. Wet passage up to chest deep in places, formations and a nice streamway. The rock was grippy and angular with chert like protrusions and suit ripping qualities. Over a couple of rock bridges and then a sump. That’s as far as this game went and we headed back. It transpired later we had found a sump in the downstream passage and there was more to see in the upstream. It didn’t matter, it was a good explore. Afterwards over a tea in the cafe Scott vocalised a theory about the names, location and reason for our confusion with the caves. A Google search confirmed him to be correct. Two caves in a day, I must be enjoying this hobby now!
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