Devis Hole Mine Caves
Damian, Maz, Nick, John, Miranda, Vikki, Ray
After a long drive, we all met up at a lovely spot just above Grinton. The first order of the day was to decide who was our leader – Maz suggested it was Damian; Damian nominated Maz. Maz must have lost this particular battle as he led us up the short walk to the entrance. And what an entrance it is: a concrete pipe, less than a metre in diameter sticking out of the ground at a shallow angle. Given the length of said pipe (maybe around 10m), we were glad to see a pre-installed handline. We surmised that exiting the place may be difficult without it.
Maz, now confirmed as our leader, set off into the jaws of hell first. As he seemed to still be alive, we thought it safe to follow him. At the bottom of the pipe, a short low section led to easy walking passage. While this had clearly been mined, there were various bits of natural cave passage leading off, mostly not large enough to enter. Eventually we reached various side passages into the Central Maze area of natural cave passage. On the survey, this looks like a bewildering maze of criss-crossing passages. We didn’t enter this area as we wanted to get to the further reaches.
Soon we reached the junction with Wellington Vein. First we headed right (west) towards the Occidental series, which we didn’t manage to find. No problem, this was never really our goal anyway. Back at the junction, we headed the other direction (east) in search of Robinson’s Level, which we found after passing the entrance to Cranehow Bottom Level.
Robinson’s level started easily enough, but mutterings from the front eventually indicated that we had reached the 2002 breakthrough dig. A bit of a climb up led to a descent into a miserable wet crawl. Hmm… was it really worth it? Maz was cajoled to “just do it”. He wasn’t sure, but just before an actual boot was inserted up his backside, he just did it. The rest of us waited with baited breath. Was that the last we would ever see of him? Of course not. In no time at all he was through and beckoning us to join him with tales of wonders beyond.
On the other side of the breakthrough dig, the most noticeable thing for me was that rails were now in place, where there had been none up to this point. This led the Moldywarps explorers (who had first reopened this section of the mine back in 2002) to surmise that the collapse was pre-war. It also promised that there were likely to be various artefacts still in place beyond here.
We hurried along the continuation of Robinson’s Level, knowing that there was a sump (in the mining sense) beyond which would take us down into the really interesting stuff. Not knowing what the rigging of this sump would be like, we had come prepared for anything, including spits. We needn’t have worried. Approaching the sump, we could see 3 very shiny and hefty ring bolts sticking out of the wall, 1 for a traverse and 2 for a y-hang. Lovely. There was even an old sling in place for a deviation.
In no time at all we had this rigged and sacrificially offered John as a rope dummy. To his dismay, there was just 1 problem: the rope didn’t reach the bottom! I had read somewhere that we didn’t actually need to go to the bottom. Was there an old rail sticking out about 4m from the bottom, and did our rope reach it? Yes and yes! We were back in business. John was able to land on the rail and balance into the passage. There was even (just about) enough rope to tie it off at the bottom. For future reference, we used a 25m rope, which was just about long enough. You wouldn’t want anything shorter.
One by one, we joined John at the bottom, apart from Nick who gave it a good shot, but wasn’t feeling it on this occasion. Fair enough – he was just getting back into caving after a long lay-off. We promised we wouldn’t be long and Nick said he would wait for us.
Below the pitch is Horn’s Workings. A cursory look at the survey suggested that this was basically a loop with a central area (possibly of natural passage?). So we planned to do a tour of the loop and then join Nick again. We set off to the south in an awkward stooping height passage. There were quite a few artefacts on this level – old carts, tools, a boot, even a nicely arranged display of old shovel heads. We passed the entrance to the South Cave System, which we would unfortunately have to leave for another day… or would we?
While we stopped to look at some artefacts, I took the chance to have a closer look at the survey. Ahh! Horn’s Workings don’t actually form a loop. Sadly, one leg of this supposed loop was at a much higher level (Cranehow Bottom Level in fact). Still, we plodded on, eventually reaching the inevitable up pitch – complete with fixed rope. This rope looked to be in good condition, leaving the possibility of a nice round trip – in via Robinson’s Level and out via Cranehow Bottom Level. One day!
So we had to retrace our steps round Horn’s Workings. At the junction where the South Cave System leads off, John & Miranda headed back to find Nick, while the rest of us took some time to recce the South system. Almost immediately, the stooping height mined passage ends and we were into much easier and prettier natural passage. The walls were exceptionally well sculpted. We explored this area for a bit, but barely scratched the surface. We turned back with plans to return before too long to push further into the South system and beyond into Wyvill’s Level and the East Cave System. Now that would be quite a trip!
On the way back out Maz, Damian, Vikki and I did poke into the Central Maze area. Wow. What a confusing place. I think I would definitely want a compass to explore much more of this area.
This was my first KCC Seniors trip. I suspect it won’t be my last. Thanks for having me!
Photos by Ray, Maz and Miranda
