Post date: Jul 3, 2008 1:01:35 PM

Present: Steve Bus, Damien Datry, Tony Furnell, Jock Read and Emma Ross.

I've been meaning to take a look here for a while, intriguing reports in various issues of Irish Speleology, and recently John Kelly told us that a survey that had been done of one of the caves (that's right, there is already passage!) by some English fellas had been handed to him in 1997, too late to go into the Caves of Fermanagh and Cavan vol.2.

According to COFAC2, there are three sinks in close proximity to each other (S3, S3a and S4) on the south side of Garvagh Lough, one of which we assumed to be Leglass Caverns. All sinks are dye-traced to Shannon Pot (Gunn, IS 3.2) and the area is between 500 and 1000 m north of the prospected location of the current end of Shannon Cave. According to the map accompanying the English group's survey, this surveyed cave appears to be at S3 alongside an old (pre-Pollahune) ICC dig and a 1987 dig is mentioned by the roadside further along the Garvagh loop.

We approached Jim and Maria Fee (last house before the gate on Garvagh loop), who were interested and very helpful; Jim's land is a strip which stretches from near the lough shore up to (close to?) the summit, incorporating a couple of the Skeagh Holes (notably SH7, a large sandstone shakehole which he took us up to). He showed us around his land and that of Jimmy McCorry next door, on which S3 lies, pointing out various shakeholes that he knew of. The ones at the top of Jim's land didn't seem too promising to dig, but he also showed us to the 1987 (unknown group) dig next to his house. The path is blocked to this (by him) with branches etc. so we couldn't see it, but an audibly sizeable stream sinks here. This sink is not mentioned in COFAC data so we don't know for sure whether it would drain to Garvagh Lough or Shannon Pot, but could be well worth a revisit. It doesn't back up in high water. Jim showed us where another, smaller sink is located further along the road as well; also not in COFAC data, this backs up over the road in high water though so less of a prospect.

We spoke to Jimmy next door before heading up to the Leglass bits with caving gear. Jimmy says that "Leglass" is actually on his next door neighbour's land (which appears to match up with the local OS sheet), but it appears the name has been adopted for the dig sites on his land. A boggy-looking S3a sink and its nearby shakehole are situated next door, we haven't investigated these or spoken to this landowner as yet. Jimmy also mentioned that from memory, the ICC dig had been called to a halt when the cavers reached a large rock that couldn't be removed... this could now be more promising with the use of some caps.

ICC dig and Leglass (I think actually both are called "Leglass Caverns" collectively, but I'll refer to the one cave for now) are adjacent to each other, with respective stream sinks nearby. There are a good few small (too small to be of any use) stream sinks covering the local area. Leglass shakehole is larger and more prominent than ICC, but it stank of badgers and looked pretty grotty so we went for the smaller shakehole. There is an obvious open entrance here, leading to a reasonable-sized chamber. To the right are smelly badger crawls which probably lead to the Leglass cave, to the right is a second smaller chamber with a nice aven. Left again here is a c. 3 m downward crawl which goes for a while until a small stream is heard and then within sight. Steve Bus investigated and said there was good, relatively easy digging potential here to get closer to the stream. Good walls too (think rebirth canal but a little bigger).

Next was the larger shakehole -- with the use of the survey notes we found the original entrance on the left at the base of a wall; half infilled with badger crap/bedding and a car battery. Short work was made of both (a few rocks had to come out too) before an awkward crawling entrance was revealed. I went in, to find a flat-out crawl over smelly badger bedding (no sign of any badgers at the time). To the left immediately inside is a descending passage against a wall going down approx. 1 m, worth noting but only worthwhile digging if we knew it would go somewhere. Straight on leads to chamber 2 which opens up with room for a few people to stand. The badger hole ends here, only rock walls and floor after this point. We found a 3 m climb down through a lobster pot-like hole, still rigged with a sling and some rope, leading to the lower chambers. These have a few good walls but mostly breakdown; at the end of the lower chamber is a dug-out climb 3 m down with old shoring (sides of the climb are still very brittle) leading to flat-out crawl that I had to enter feet first due to space at its entrance.

The crawl still had a bucket and hauling rope in place from previous digging; it's flat out (helmet sized in places) in a dribble of water, nothing too bad but a PVC suit's definitely a winner here. Within 10 m the crawl becomes impassable; this appears to be the extent of the survey too. Here the passage splits (providing a place to turn around) -- straight on is too flat but the gravel/mud floor could be dug out, bedrock looks to be in the way ahead though. To the right a parallel route is similarly small, here the surface stream is met and can be seen flowing to the left and across the end of the original passage. On the left there is more potential; here the wall is just mud and loose rocks, and you can see for a few metres here against the ceiling. There is a draft, but I couldn't say whether it's from left, right or centre or from all of these.

Definitely could be dug, but requires a) new shoring (scaff bars) for the climb down, b) a good system in place for hauling spoil along the crawl and up the climb and c) some perseverance by the digger(s) in a pretty tight space.

So a pretty productive day all told! A return trip is in the pipeline... Must find out who the original English diggers were too, and see if we can get any further info from them. The Gunn Report in IS 3.2 reveals the ICC dig team as George Pitt, Maurice Neill and John Gunn, among others.

Tony