Many thanks to the happy couple for providing an excellent afternoon and evening, and to Darren and Emma for the venue.
A much more agreeable occasion than the average club meet!
Group photo
Cutting the Cake
Best wishes to both of them!
It was too wet for the Barbondale trip, so an Easegill visit was proposed, and I suggested exploring the upper reaches of Wretched Rabbit – it would be dry, and new for us all. I liked the sound of “Dreamweaver” and “Mystery and Imagination” – surely these would be worth a visit? Sophie, Ray, Scott, Tom, James and Maz agreed, or at least couldn’t come up with a better idea.
In the event, the description on the Red Rose site doesn’t do justice to the complexity of the area. We split up and spent some fun time wriggling around various crawls, traverses and chambers, probably encountering Marble Chamber and Ulreka Chamber. But anything justify the exotic names I was looking for eluded us.
Still, it was a good work-out and it’s always nice to leave something to do next time water levels are high…
Scott and I celebrated St Patrick’s Day with a trip down Mongo Gill, just nearby the Stump Cross show caves. The trip had been planned for the Saturday, but Scott was busy leading a hen party gill-scrambling. He earns his money!
Calling at the café to collect the keys, we were given a talking-to about safety and conservation from the owner. However it was a little difficult to give these topics serious consideration, as she was wearing a helmet with cow-horns atop a black wig (that’s what cave-women wear, apparently).
Anyway, having been assured that the North Shaft entrance was easy to find, we set off across the field, and after half an hour so of quartering it, failed to do so. I returned to the car to get my GPS, and we walked straight to it. The entrance pitch is easy, and we were soon able to discard the SRT kit, as there were a lot of snug crawls in prospect.
The route to begin with is a little complex, but the Braemoor guide is excellent and we were soon past the difficulties. After a passage with a small shaft to the side, there is 250 metres of interesting passage. Not always easy going, mind, a lot of it is crawling. Then after an unpleasant, but brief wallow in a puddle, there’s what is described as 100 metres of straightforward and pleasant caving. We launched into this confidently, but I was finding it less than pleasant, and surely more than 100m – I wasn’t looking forward to repeating all this on the return!
Emerging from another low crawl, I thought the chamber had a strangely familiar small shaft to the side, and Scott confirmed my impression – somehow we had retraced our steps without noticing that we’d reversed direction! It was a very WTAF moment … but once we’d recovered from the bewilderment, it was a relief not to have to repeat all the crawls – we already had!
Soon back at the entrance, we thought we might as well find Shockle Shaft and have a look from that end. Thank goodness for the GPS again – we found it quickly enough, and had a good look round most of the bits that we’d expected to see. Overall, we agreed it was a good trip, if not quite as expected. Mongo Gill is an interesting place – a mixture of natural cave and lead-mine workings, with parts of it being well-decorated. The formations must have been spectacular centuries ago, and although the passage of time, and miners, have taken their toll, they are still worth seeing.
Roaring Hole 18/10/2023 – Connor, James, Rhod, Jason
I always like to begin a trip to Roaring with half-an-hour or so fruitlessly wandering the limestone pavement on the slopes of Ingleborough, and tonight was no exception. It turns out that a) What3Words isn’t as useful a navigational tool as I’d hoped, and b) my recollection of the entrance of the entrance was woeful. Anyway, when Connor’s phone got a signal, it didn’t take long before we were heading down.
The first (and only, as far as we were concerned) pitch into Bandstand chamber comes in two halves – the first a simple drop to a wide ledge, and the second a rather awkward Y-hang down the last 5m. I rigged both parts, but regretted it. It’s quicker and easier to tiptoe round the edge of the chamber to the bottom, and really not too terrifying.
There follows one of several scaffolded boulder chokes. There wasn’t much water – the promised storm having held off – but what there was found its way down the back of our necks. A short crawl, and another boulder choke or two leads to Slab Chamber. There are hangers for a handline, and I had brought some rope, but once again the rope doesn’t really help – it takes you away from dry rock with good handholds.
A final boulder slope led down to the streamway, which we explored as far as The Rift, which we left for another time. Getting out is easy enough, though warm work – until the final upward thrutch into the entrance slope. The youngsters all managed this with minimal assistance, but I was badly in need of a shove from Connor, who manfully ascended unaided.
A good trip, and thanks to all for bearing with my attempts at above-ground navigation!
Ray, Sophie, Darren, Chris D, Tim D, Bob, Jason
[Written up 26/10/25 from some brief notes made at the time]
This was the Christmas meet, and I hadn’t done Boxhead before, so what could be better than a 3-counties through-trip to work up an appetite for pudding?
Ray rigged, down to near (but not at) the bottom of the shaft to the Kendall flyover. It’s a big pitch, but the rigging isn’t too complex. Tim and Bob turned back to de-rig, bless them! There was a longish crawl, followed by the Cresta run, a slightly awkward slippery crawl/traverse over a rift. Then some more mixed going – fortunately Ray knew the way as there were many side-routes. At one point, as I was trailing behind somewhat, I failed to notice the way on was a climb up over boulders, and got stuck trying to get underneath, in thick mud [2025 update – I only did the same f***ing thing again!]. Darren had to come back to set me right. Further on, there’s a handline-assisted chimney climb which is quite strenuous. [2025 update – 3 years later I couldn’t manage this at all and resorted to prussiking up the old hawser-laid tat]. Soon after that we came to the junction with the Lyall cavern route (Helictite rift is straight on) and up to the link with Notts II. You have to go up as far as possible before dropping down into it. I managed to get stuck again by not ensuring my SRT bag went down before me [2025 update – one lesson learnt!] It was a fast trip as everyone else was fitter than me. About 3½ hours underground for me, probably less for the others!
Bob C, Scott, Tom C, Jason
The trip started with a bit of confusion – I’d said to meet at the Ribblehead Car Park, thinking of the lay-by on the road, unaware of the proper car park down a track, almost underneath the arches.
When we were finally assembled, we wandered over the moor, led by my Garmin – finding the cave without its assistance in the dark would have been a struggle. Navigation is straightforward, you just follow the water through the cave, pretty much all crawling at first.
After a while you have to lower yourself into a low crawl half-full of water (brrr!). Turning right out of this leads you – oh! back where you started… I tried again (double-brrr!), this time noticing the unattractive snug continuation to the left (“The Tube”). As the water was not too high, I found this ok in my right side, and after a couple of metres you get to a slightly roomier passage. Tom found this awkward, and after briefly wallowing without the benefit of neoprene, decided to back out.
The cave does improve a lot after this (sorry, Tom!) – though never spacious, there are some nice meanders and traverses and some attractive flowstone formations. Arriving at the middle entrance, Scott popped out to see if Tom was around. Surely he’d have gone back to the warmth of the car? But no, he was nearby the lower entrance, so he came back in to have a look upstream, while the remaining three continued following the water.
The next section is reasonably short, which was good as it consisted mainly of crawling in water (which hadn’t got any warmer). Meanwhile, Tom had exited and hopped overground to the third entrance, and his light at the end of the tunnel of was a welcome sight.
One more section, to entrance 4 – shall we do it? Might as well tick all the boxes… It was only 20 or so metres, but it was more crawling, in cold water on sharp rocks, a test of the knee pads. Mercifully soon over, and it wasn’t long before we were sat in the Railway Inn, as near as we could get to the fire. Joy!
This is actually a nice cave, short but with plenty of interest, but probably best done in the Summer, and not forgetting the neoprene!
Peter B, Tom C, Bob C, Tim D, Miranda, John, Chris H, Tim K, Ray, Scott, Gareth, Jason
Miranda’s Lancs to County trip had suddenly become more popular with trips to Lost John’s and Pippikin being discouraged by the wet weather. To avoid congestion, Peter, Tom, Bob, Tim K, Ray, Scott and I headed off to County to do the trip in reverse.
The plan was to go via Poetic Justice to Stop Pot, but the water levels on the way made it likely that route would be too wet for safety, or at least comfort. So we decided to go for Manchester Bypass, Scott and Tim being reasonably confident of the route, There were some mutterings at the back, The Bypass having a reputation of being tight and awkward. But all agreed to persevere, at least until Brown and Smelly chamber, which is reached by turning up to the right from the PJ streamway just before the climb down towards Spout Hall. A few twists and turns lead to a rift chamber with an iron ladder and before long, the chamber – Brown but not noticeably Smelly.
From here, a knotted handline leads up to a rift you need to climb up. This is snug, but not too bad, if you face the right way. I didn’t, but a helping hand from Tim got me there. At this point, Tom and Bob decided to turn back for an early bath. The rest of us now came to Spangle Passage, which I’d remembered from an earlier trip – somewhat small, but entertainingly wriggly. Soon emerging into Old English chamber and diving back down into a slot in the floor, it’s not long before any misery is forgotten and we were rewarded by the glories of Mainline Passage. In fact it was so good, we ignored the wide, low turn off to the right and carried on to the window overlooking Snail Cavern.
Retracing our steps, we turned off to Mainline Terminus, and set off on the familiar (in parts) high-level route. At this point, we met Chris and Tim D heading in the opposite direction, the other three having turned back at the Minarets. They confirmed that water levels in the streamway were high, but preferred the rigors of Manchester Bypass to going back over the high-level route, which they said was “really shitty”. That cheered us up.
The humid conditions had made everything greasy, but not that bad, I thought, although it always seems further than I remember it being… Eventually we reached Lancaster Pot, and there was quite a substantial shower coming down the pitch instead of the usual drips. Ray was out first, I followed, and was at first surprised at how keen he was to get back to the farm. But after a minute or so in the driving sleet, I quite came round to his point of view, so off we went, very grateful to be changing in a nice warm drying room. It was only an hour or so later, when we spared a thought for our comrades Tim K, Peter and Scott who hadn’t yet returned. Should we put down our drinks and go to see how they fared? Fortunately the dilemma was solved by their appearance, and we returned to relaxing with a clear conscience!
Dave G, Jason
Before we went, I couldn’t find much information about Haytime online, and Northern Caves doesn’t give a lot away about where to find it. It turned out not to be too hard, even in the dark, but for future reference, you walk up the Pennine Way from the Crown in Horton for about 1km, where you come to a gate. Carry on for another 100m, then go up an obvious dried-up streambed on your right. After maybe 150m, there’s a big shakehole with the entrance to the left.
The entrance crawl is very short, so short in fact that I ignored the unpromising hole in the floor of the first little chamber and continued crawling through an uncomfortable squeeze on the left. This progresses to a squalid low passage before getting ridiculously tight. Dave sensibly suggested seeing if the hole was the way on – it was, and I spent the next ten minutes inching out of the squeeze backwards, by now well covered in crap.
The hole on the right turned out to be generously P-hangered (a bit of a clue) but you really don’t need any aids, it’s a simple free climb. Honestly – it’s a snug rift with plenty of holds, though warm work on the return. This pitch and the following climbs do have some loose rocks, but we took it carefully and didn’t have any problems. The last climb is probably the hardest, but there is a decent resident handline, so there’s no real need to take any tackle.
From the survey, it appears that there’s a direct, wet route, and a longer drier route, both meeting shortly before Helm’s Deep, the final chamber. The plan was to go down dry and come back up wet. The actual layout is more complex than the survey suggests, but anyway we went on a long meandering rift – well decorated in parts – to reach a T-junction that was apparently not on the survey. We turned left, expecting it to quickly choke, but it went on and on, feeling as though we were heading back to where we’d already been. But abruptly, we found ourselves in the impressive chamber that was undoubtedly Helm’s Deep, whence a short crawl leads to the attractive sump.
Returning, we started up what ought to have been the short, wet route but seemed to be a different dry meandering rift leading to where the other had started. Whatever. It was a good fun romp (apart from the unnecessary squalid interlude at the start) in under two hours, and I’d happily return to try and figure out how the passage related to the survey and explore various side passages we left for another time. My thanks to Dave for turning out and not moaning at my slow pace, I hope we’ll be seeing more of him!
On a less happy note, we were dismayed to find the Crown shut – I hope this isn’t permanent!
Darren M, Jason
I was surprised that no-one else had signed up for this cave, whose location was a closely-guarded secret until fairly recently, and it was a pull-through, so ‘all downhill’ (almost). Perhaps it was the “very snug” billing in the meets list?
Meeting Darren in the car park, we quickly set off up the fell – and quickly stopped when Darren suddenly remembered his SRT kit was still hanging up in the garage. Doh! Fortunately, Emma was in, and agreed to bring it over in her car, which she did, still smiling! What a star!
Now fully equipped, we parked, changed and went straight to the obscure trapdoor that marks the entrance. We left the kit off for the entrance crawl, but it’s really not that tight, and you soon reach a perch before the short first pitch where you can kit up comfortably. Having got to the bottom, we pulled the rope through but neither of us noticed the small overhand knot in the end of the rope. Small – but not small enough to go through the hangar! Double doh!
What to do? Strangely, the option of leaving the rope there and using the longer rope (intended for pitch 4) for pitches 2 and 3 never occurred to us. Instead, Darren very gently prussicks up – remember, the rope is held in place only by an overhand knot jammed in an anchor – while I stand at the bottom, arms outstretched to act as a crash mat. Fortunately, I was not needed! And we were soon on our way again.
The Hay Wagon is off to one side at this point. We had intended to have a good look at it, but as it’s necessary to de-kit to avoid damaging the formations we decided to give it a miss to save time. I just had a quick peek from the start, and the straws did indeed look spectacular.
A bit of rifty passage leads before long to pitches 2 and 3. The second needs a particularly bold step to get onto, but a modicum of safety is provided by an in-situ traverse line – it must have been hairy indeed before it was installed. After pitch 3, there’s a long, winding hands-and-knees crawl in water. Today it was quite low, so not a problem, but you wouldn’t want to discover the airspace was restricted because of high water after having pulled-through 3 previous pitches; hence it’s not a wet-weather cave.
The relief at being able to stand up again is short-lived, as the next section is an awkward rift passage – this is the “very snug” bit. It’s actually not that tight, but here’s a tip: don’t try and drag your tackle bag behind you – it gets stuck in the narrow section at the bottom, then you can’t turn round and free it… well, you can picture the scene. Eventually, by dint of thrutching and strong language, I managed to get through to join Darren, who had been patiently waiting, unable to assist.
This brings you to final pitch, for which we had a 70m rope, knotted in the middle for the pull-through. Darren said it should be long enough… hmmm. In fact, the unweighted rope dangled about 6” above the ground, so it was exactly the right length! A muddy walking passage soon leads to the familiar territory of the Notts II streamway. I normally enjoy the romp out, but was finding the unaccustomed tackle sack a bit of a hindrance, so when Darren offered to take both bags for the final climb, I gratefully accepted. Without it, I almost kept up… so that’s another pint I owe him!
Andy G, Tim K, Josh E, Jason
It was a beautiful day on Darnbrook Fell. Normal people were gawping at the view or on their bikes, but we kitted up and made ourselves known to the farmress (is this a word? ‘Farmer’s wife’ sounds a bit un-PC). “It’s down there”, she said pointing to a manhole (tsk, un-PC again) and shaking her head.
Andy and Tim rigged up a fancy life-lining system despite which we were soon down the short pitch. A short bit of crawling leads to 1862 chamber, named after a fine bit of graffiti carved into the wall with a name and that date. I’d printed out a nice sketch map of the cave (thanks to Cave Maps) which I was glad of, as none of us had visited the cave before. This showed the way on was a crawl low on the left, leading to a sequence of crawly passages. At one point, you have to ignore the obvious well-worn passage straight on in favour of another low crawl on the left. Apart from that, the way is fairly obvious, though there are a number of distracting inlets.
The sketch shows ‘Dry Mud Tube’ which is exactly what it is – muddy but comfortable enough. This ends with a little drop into the ‘Low Wet Crawl’ – again, exactly that. Less comfortable, but with today’s low water levels, easily navigated. This pops out into McColl’s Rift, a high gallery which was a welcome relief after the grovelling. Going left starts promisingly, then abruptly stops. The way on is to the right, with the high rift giving way to smaller but easy-going passage. Andy located the start of Crossover Passage (another low crawl on the left) while Tim explored the rest of the rift before joining us.
Crossover soon finishes at what Northern Caves describes as a 3m pitch into the main stream passage. It’s even less than that, but on Chris’s advice we rigged a whole ladder for the return – the stream undercuts the pitch, so the senior members of the party might have found the climb up a little too challenging!
Where should we go first? Downstream is a fine passage which lowers towards the water. This must be the sump – but no, I crawled along in gravel to the left to a low chamber, which was clearly the end. But no, Andy had other ideas and found another low crawl – and a dive line. Sump located! But wait, didn’t the map show another sump off to the left? Sure enough, yet more low wet crawling led to another sump pool. Lovely.
Fully sated with the downstream end, we returned to the main passage to go upstream. This was a very fine passage, high and fairly narrow with lots of flowstone, gour pools and mud formations. At the end the roof lowers, the water deepens and clearly the upstream sump is close. The only part of the cave we hadn’t visited was the Worm Series, reached from the sump chamber. Nobody fancied this – it wasn’t on the map but it was clearly not called after small, wriggly things for nothing.
Still, while we’re here, we might as well look at the start, so we waded through the duck and into the sump pool (bracing!), but no sign of a passage off. Good, we can be off then! Oh wait – there it is, an uninviting muddy tube with water lapping its entrance… Well, I’ll just have a quick look. After wallowing a few feet, I realised Josh was following me, so I carried on rather than look a complete wuss. Then – glory be – a chamber! Small, but at least we could all stand up. Ok, have we done it now? Tim looked down an even lower, muddier crawl going off. Did I think it went anywhere? To be honest, I didn’t much care, so suggested that Tim have a look if he was curious!
He did, and we soon got a call “there’s a chamber”. Really? Ok then, let us imitate the actions of a worm again…. In fact, it was not just a chamber but a substantial cross passage. Suddenly we were glad we’d made the effort. Tim went left, Josh and I went right, he took the main passage, I checked out yet another unpromising muddy tube which went, and went, eventually ending in a muddy, bouldery ramp.
Meeting up again, we concluded that we’d pretty much been everywhere (which was confirmed by consulting the full survey later), so headed uneventfully for the exit – and it was still a beautiful day on Darnbrook Fell.
We were underground only a little over 3 hours and Robinsons’ probably only rates about ‘Calcite’ on the caving Mohs scale, but there was plenty of variety and plenty of fun, and you can’t say fairer than that!