Stephen Macnamara, Stephen McCullagh, 10 hours.

There weren't too many volunteers for this trip as the temperature was well below zero, with more snow forecast for later.

Good day for caving then - no water underground and positively tropical in comparison with the surface. When the car started sliding on the upwards slope, we pulled onto the verge and walked the remaining 20 minutes to the cave. We had a chat with a farmer on the way, who invited us to call in for a cup of tea on our way back.

The waterfall was frozen for the top 5 metres, and there were 2-inch horizontal ice crystals on the walls down to the pitch head - pretty. We were soon in High Noone's Left, where we pulled up at the aven on the right hand wall, some 100m before the boulder choke. We aimed for a high passage just to the left of the main aven, which was obviously connected. With Bus belaying and me bolting, we got into it after 4 bolts.

We connected into the aven and were able to look at it properly for the first time: unfortunately it closed down immediately. The area comprises a network of smallish tubes and rifts. We chimneyed 6 metres up the only passable one (this was difficult - even Santa Claus thinks so). At the top there is a small, horizontal tube partially filled with hard clay. We dug for a while until I could get my chest through, and with no sign of it getting any bigger we left it. We rigged a permanent line and removed the climbing bolts before returning to the streamway.

This was a bit of a disappointment, but we decided to look for other leads. Climbing up high at the start of the main stream choke brings you to an area of loose boulders and horrible claggy mud, with no obvious leads. Undeterred, we went back to stream level and pushed into the boulder choke. The book says the choke goes for 60m I think, but we had been under the impression that that was it. It involved a miserable duck and one or two squeezes, and it was nice - and surprising - to break out into passage on the other side.

It continues for a hundred metres of similar passage to before the choke, and reaches a sump. This can be bypassed to get to more of the same type of passage, and another boulder choke. We climbed up into a high level chamber, and up again into a higher level collapse chamber with no promising leads. Just before we left, Steve happened across a gem of a find - on a mud bank in the far corner of the chamber, a skeleton of a newt/salamander/proteus-type thing - 5cm long including tail, with 4 little legs. We had left the camera at the aven unfortunately so this will need to be photographed on the next trip and sent on to some clever person for an opinion.

Back at stream level, we rolled a rock out of the way to enter a final hundred metres of stream passage to a place where the stream rushes out of a tight fissure - just a bit too small to get past. This could be enlarged with caps, and I think it's worth a try. I have a feeling that it might open up around the corner... Just before the end, there is a dripping aven some 20m in height.

People have been to the end before, but by a high-level route. It seems to be marked in the COFAC survey, but there is very little in the way of written description.

The return to the car was cold. My snapgates froze shut after 30 seconds of being on the rope and I had to bash them with another krab to unclip myself. The car slid 2 metres, handbrake on, from its parking spot on the grass verge as we were loading bags into the boot. We got back to Belfast for about half one in the morning.