Lost Johns' – Tate Galleries

"You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" — Will Crowther (1976)

A tackle-free route down Lost Johns'

The opening of the Three Counties Connection between Lost Johns' and Notts II has created innumerable trip opportunities as well as a 90km system. Perhaps most remarkable of all is a tackle free route all the way from moor level down to the Lost John's Master Cave. This uses a little-known connection in the Tate Galleries which bypasses the usual 10m pitch from the Kendal Flyover ledge. The route is described below. My own opportunity to explore this area has come with the Misty Mountain Mud Miners Corporation (MMMMC) resurveying project which has (ahem, mission-creep!) inexorably moved on from Ireby and Rift, into Notts II and Lost Johns'. As usual this has taken us to some pretty obscure places, sometimes to be rewarded by pristine formations in little visited corners of the system.

The Tate Galleries is a complex area at the top end of the Lost Johns' system. It was first explored by the Kendal Cave Club (KCC) from Lyle Caverns but now usually accessed by a crawl from the Kendal Flyover ledge 10m above the base of Boxhead. What I had not realised until recently is that there is a bypass to this, connecting the Tate Galleries directly with the base of the Boxhead main pitch. Since this is where the Lost Pot Inlet (via the Tube) leaves, it grants access to the Lost Johns' main drain without having to descend either the Lyle Cavern pitch or the last 10m of the Kendal Flyover route. With the Three Counties Connection joining Lyle Caverns to Notts II, the remarkable opportunity now exists to descend from moor level to the Lost Johns' Master Cave without using any tackle.

Becka Lawson in Epiglottis Grotto.

Description

From Notts II (Committee Pot entrance) take the Three Counties Connection to the major T junction in Lyle Caverns. Straight ahead at the T junction is the normal route down to the Master Cave, via the Helictite Rift and the Lyle Caverns pitch. Right at the T junction enters the impressive Avens Passage. Between the final two avens, a hole between blocks in the floor enters a broken 12m climb (handline in place) which spirals down to the level of the Tate Galleries. From the base of the climb a gravelly hands and knees crawl leads to a junction with a larger passage. The way on is right, past a small aven, along a passage with pools to another junction. The normal way is to go left to join a short section of clean-washed vadose streamway. At the end of this the water vanishes into boulders but a continuation soon reaches another, fourways junction (right at the second junction enters left here, via Straw Chamber). The way on is straight across into an uninviting flat-out crawl through water, which thankfully soon enlarges to hands and knees. Where the water ends is a fourth junction and the key parting of the ways.

The standard route is straight ahead, up a broken 9m climb (in situ handline for the top part) to the start of the Cresta Run. This classic keyhole passage ends in a junction with a somewhat larger passage; right goes to Crowbar pitch and Epiglottis, and left leads over a couple of holes and past yet more junctions to the platform on the Kendal Flyover route in Boxhead, 10m above the floor.

For the non-standard but tackle-free route to Boxhead, instead of climbing up into the Cresta Run, follow the passage around to the left to encounter a boulder choke, almost immediately. This is easily passed on the left hand side, climbing up over boulders (care!) then down again into the main passage continuation. The continuation soon turns right at a decorated grotto and briefly takes the form of a mini-gothic passage with a pool on the floor, leading to a sizeable chamber. A large inlet passage enters the chamber from the left but soon ends at a too-low crawl; the inlet itself drains into fissures down a climb in the floor of the chamber. The way to Boxhead is straight on, at the same level as the floor of the gothic passage, following a strong draft. A crawl between a large boulder and the right hand wall leads to a short section with a slot in the floor, almost immediately followed by a flat out rocky crawl with something of a squeeze towards the far end (this may halt larger cavers!). The crawl ends when another floor slot appears and the main stream from Boxhead is encountered. Following this up over cobbles enters the base of the Boxhead main pitch. The turn off to the Tube and the Lost Pot Inlet is across the base of the pitch, on the right. From here to Lyle Cavern and the Lost Johns' main drain is a straightforward.

Click on the survey to get a PDF version

Further information

For a description of Lost Johns', Lyle Caverns and Tate Galleries see Northern Caves (vol 3), and Not for the Faint Hearted (Mike Cooper); although neither of these contains the tackle-free connection described above.

Surveys of Lost Johns' (Waltham 1970) and the Tate Galleries (KCC J10) can be found online at http://cavemaps.org/.

MMMMC survey data can be found at http://cave-registry.org.uk/svn/NorthernEngland/ThreeCountiesArea/.

For details of the Three Counties Connection see Descent 223 and 225.

Adapted from CPC Record 112, 5-7 (Oct 2013).