Post date: May 29, 2011 9:38:15 PM

Cavers: SteveBus, Aileen, Al

Trip time: ~3 hours

Late on Friday night Aileen persuaded me to dig in Black Burn with her and Steve, despite my misgivings that it would be a waste of a day with a fairly high expectation that the cave would be flooded. On Saturday the morning the weather was fairly poor, and we drove through a few heavy showers. There wasn't much hope for Black Burn, and we were a bit concerned too that even if we got in, conditions in the cave might be at the tipping point to a flood. After a stop in Carnlough to rehydrate Steve, we went to check the burn. It was flowing so there was no possibility of entering Black Burn. Aileen's car heaved a sigh of relief that it wasn't going to be forced up the lane. On to plan B.

We motored up the coast road to look for the rising, source of the Foran River, the famously shortest river in Ireland. A bit stuck for parking, the car was left neatly at the side of the road. We wandered over the field and up to the spring, past the old pumping house. This appears to be disused, and the cheery neighbour next door confirmed this, so a dig at the rising probably wouldn't cause mud to flow into sinks in Red Bay. We didn't look too closely at the prospects, it requiring some paddling through briars, and instead spent some time chatting with the neighbours. After that we headed up on to Garron Point, above the rising, to have a look around (with a bizarre encounter with a plastic-bag be-hatted woman eating a picnic en-route). Almost above the rising is a prominent rifty faulted area, with one decent rifty cave (not checked, no-one had a light), and another rifty area with a promising hole high in the cliff. Steve took a closer look, but baulked at the nasty traverse over to it. It would be worth a closer look.

Then on to the main event of the day, a trip to Ardclinis Cave. A new one for Aileen and i, this was a fantastic pothole. We parked at the old church and hiked up the hill, getting changed under a large rock at the start of the steep gorge, at which point Steve revealled the existence of a couple of nasty climbs. The gorge was quite nice, dry in the lower part. After the two climbs we met the river sinking in a large pool - quite considerably more water than appears from the small spring above the church. The gorge opens out into a pleasant hidden valley, with Ardclinis Cave entered through a prominent rift on the right hand side.

A short free climb down over various sheep parts leads to a small chamber at the pitch-head. Steve noted that the pitch-head was larger than previously, and we did a further bit of gardening. The rigging was fairly adventurous - the rope tied directly to a large thread, then rebelayed from a cherty-chalky nodule, and then a second rebelay from a chert bridge, creating a zig-zig route. A few bolts would give a nice SRT route. Rub points were numerous, loose rock was ever present. Aileen also had no SRT kit, so made her descent on a belt with a friction hitch and my idiot loop as a cowstail. To get out of the line of fire while Aileen descended i slid into the continuation, a tightening crawl. The start was spacious enough to sit up in and de-kit. It was a bit wet, with water trickling in along half of the ceiling and making a small stream. Crawling, and then flat out wriggling, i got to the first corner. When Steve joined me, bringing the hammer, i did a bit of chert bashing along the next, even tighter, section and then made an effort to pass the terminal squeeze. The gravel eventually choked me, and my PVC suit was a bit snaggy. I backed out, and took the shovel, scrapping gravel and a few rocks out of the floor and dragging the spoil back to the first corner. Steve and i reversed out completely, discussing how we would continue the dig. There is a fantastic inwards draught, and the sound of a stream at the end.

Aileen then went in for a look, passing the first corner, and then the dug-out squeeze to reach the second corner. Encouraging noises came back. After a few minutes, i crawled back to the first corner, to see if she needed to be guided out. A bit worryingly, there was no sign of Aileen, and a muffled conversation soon revealed that she had passed the second corner and was now stuck under a chert bridge in a muddy puddle. Steve brought up the digging tools and i headed off galantly to the rescue. The squeeze was still tight, and took me a bit of time to pass, more hampered by my suit, but after the squeeze the passage thankfully widened and by the second corner was positively spacious. After a bit of delicate chert removal from around Aileen's back she was able to reverse out, then we all backed up as there was no more time to do any more digging. Back in the wider part of the passage we had a bit of a laugh at Aileen's begrimed face. The climb out passed without (serious) incident, free climbing pitches 1 and 3 to avoid damaging the rope. I passed my SRT kit back down for Aileen to use.

All in all a very pleasant and enjoyable trip. We estimated the depth of the cave at around 25 to 30 m, and there's good potential for more discovery (estimated new passage find today of 3 body lengths). Even though we were below the main river sink we hadn't met the mainstream. There is every chance that the passages will increase in size when we do.

Al