Post date: Mar 1, 2020 6:19:39 PM

Aileen Brown, Stephen Macnamara, Barry Montague. 4.5 hours

Another trip to Poll Keeran and yet another weather warning..

We returned to tackle the remaining larger rocks from one of the previous trips. Following a late arrival from Barry we were promptly changed and began comparing our choice of hammers. Turns out bigger is better.

The track and entrance were much drier on our arrival this week, with snow starting to fall I was hoping it would stay dry. This time some capping was used to speed up progress and make the rocks easier to manage. The first few were split uneventfully and the smaller lumps disposed of. Eventually a problem was hit with one rock, two caps failing to detonate and the firing pin stuck fast. A second attempt also failed taking a third go to finally split. A fourth hole was drilled and capped to further reduce the size and almost freed the original firing pin. Some careful prying apart released the pin allowing the caps to be made safe.

Capping complete attention turned to doing some gardening, with all parties building their own walls, some more successful than others, and some further debris being cleared from the floor. With the dig starting to open up slightly, more scaffolding was placed at which point the ingress of a slight stream was noted. Thus making for the 3rd trip running to feature water at the dig site. So much for the snow continuing.

A dash to the surface followed, gear cleaned in the newly formed stream and then back to the car.

Barry