Time 8 hours
Stephen Macnamara, Aileen Brown, Eoghan Mullan & Stephen McCullagh
I had been back in Ireland for nearly 4 months, and it was time to dip my toe in Shannon Water again. During the long lockdown days of 2020, I had repeated dreams of by-passing the boulder choke at the end of Mistake passage. These dreams hinted that maybe we had missed a high-level passage somewhere above Mistake Junction. Looking at some of the survey sketches it seemed quite possible that there could be a passage aligning in height with the downstream Aghnahoo chamber and potentially follow the direction of Mistake passage but at a much higher level. This possibility intrigued me, especially if we could find an easier way to East Cuilcagh than pushing the current high-level grotty dig.
We met up at McGourty’s Farmyard at 9:30 am and walked up to the Pollytullyard entrance. Eoghan rigged and we quickly bottomed the pitch. The onward trip down through the rest of the cave was uneventful. At Mistake Junction the four of us spread out and explored the downstream area. The three consecutive high-level chambers located above the streamway were found to have nothing of interest and were followed back down to the main streamway. Making our way back up stream to the junction, we followed the “Phreatic Tube” (Referenced here https://www.google.com/maps/@54.3967045,-8.1544663,1113m/data=!3m1!1e3 ) to determine if anything was missed on previous trips. Again, nothing of note was found.
At Mistake Junction, we climbed high into the boulder choke (in the direction of Polltullyard) to a flat roofed breakdown chamber. Two slots were found: the first pushed by Aileen pinched-in after a couple of meters. The second was pushed by Steve into a tight space between boulders that immediately dead ended.
Back at Mistake junction Steve and I explored the start of the upstream Mistake passage. Interestingly two new ways of entering the passage were found. Both are much better than current options i.e. the wet duck, and the high level shitty thrutch in the roof. One of these new routes was rigged with a progression rope for future use. At that, we called it a day.
All leads in the immediate area of Mistake Junction are dead. It may still be worthwhile examining the upper reaches of Aghnahoo chamber again. The three consecutive high-level chambers above the streamway don’t connect suggesting that Aghnahoo chamber may have different origins.
Stevebus