Post date: Jun 25, 2009 11:20:16 AM

Present: Aileen Connor, Tony Furnell, Alasdair (Penguin) Kennedy

Surveying trip into Pollahune inlet, with some gratuitous high-level exploration. Photos by Fat Tony.

The three of us went for a day's surveying trip into Shannon; planning to survey either Brown Shiver and Pollahune inlets, or (if we couldn't get hold of a survey tape on the surface) the high levels of St. Pat's Extension -- seeing as both Shannon Group tapes were sitting at the camp site (d'oh!)... As it happens, we called into the big DIY shop on the edge of Enniskillen, Tempo Road (can't remember the name of the place offhand) and it turned out to have a wealth of useful stuff -- if we're ever at a loss for digging/surveying/general caving-related DIY gear, this seems to be a good spot. They even do Makita drills! We picked up a 30 m tape and headed onwards for the cave, via breakfast at Wetherspoons.

This was Penguin's first trip into Shannon Cave and also his first SRT cave, so once successfully down the pitch Aileen and I did the usual tour guide bit of pointing out the main sights (Hanging Death, Rebirth Canal, the Katie Killer, etc.). We opted to head downstream as far as Swingers' Corner, for the sake of the tour, then back upstream via Pollahune and (if there was time) Brown Shiver. On the way back I took a brief detour off to the right just downstream of JCP climb, into a choked oxbow I've often spotted when passing. The oxbow gives access to an easy climb up to higher levels of the canyon, eventually reaching a very muddy area at a similar level and of similar makeup to the pretty helictite chamber above Les' Climb (does that chamber have a name yet??). It features a forest of 20-30 cm straws on the ceiling in a wide bedding plane, as well as a fine column-like stalagmite and a curtain/stal combo in the next chamber upstream, with a single set of footprints. The way on here is well blocked by boulder collapse, so it looks like a link to Les' climb wouldn't be likely. However the cave still continues upwards, above the column and up a slope of fallen mud and debris, eventually reaching even higher levels. Aileen climbed up here to reach an old shelf rich with straws and stals (Skittle Alley perhaps?) continuing downstream (possibly navigable with care) and a large, open, muddy continuation heading upstream. Given that we'd left the survey gear in JCP Chamber we figured there was no point staying any longer if we couldn't add it to the survey, so we descended again with a view to returning another time. Pollahune inlet, despite our worry from the old descriptions and its uninviting entrance, turned out to be a fantastic stretch of cave; in fact I'm amazed that we hadn't really investigated it properly before. We chose to take the survey gear to the far end and survey back downstream, so that we'd have a good idea of which route to survey. After ducking through the low gap in the wall of JCP Chamber, through a welly-depth puddle, the passage opens out to easy walking, with a fair bit of (usually solid) breakdown and the occasional criss-crossing of oxbows and fossil phreas. After 20 m an abrupt turn to the right is made, requiring a fairly tight squeeze past boulders to get into the large canyon continuation. Much climbing is possible all around here, although some careful gardening of some of the half-ton hanging boulders might be recommended first!

The stream is soon regained and over the next 150-200 m the passage changes character a few times; first the high, typical Shannon-style canyon with shelves at different levels (but on a smaller scale to JCP) then the occasional boulder climb from which the stream issues part-way up, then some nice narrow, winding canyon, under-cut across the meanders as the stream flows in a straight line underneath; then multi-level passageway where numerous vadose and phreatic routes link to the same place. In a particularly strange section, after climbing up and over a boulder pile through which the stream flows, looking to the left we realised that the stream splits and flows downstream into another identical canyon passage.... after a brief investigation I found that the ceiling then lowers and a floor-level semicircular tube heads back round to the other stream and the two waterways meet up again in the main passage.

Beyond these sections the passage starts to break down much more, although still remaining mostly solid and safe. At a couple of points different streams enter the cave, although many of these may just be split sections of the Hune stream. A large waterfall enters on the left from boulders (we've yet to check, but this may be a route up to the entrance series), clearly the main Hune inlet. Beyond this the stream level passage still goes, passing one boulder choke via an oxbow shelf and then another by a slightly scary 3-metre-long squeeze between loose boulders and a 45-degree ceiling, eventually reaching its terminus in a small boulder chamber where the trickle of a stream issues from a duck which is too tight but may be dug out by the insanely persistent. Here there were still caver tracks and even an old snoopy-loop left behind from a past trip. A stream can also be heard in the boulder choke to the left, and Aileen spotted a piece of tree bark that had been washed in at some point. It's interesting to note that the passage at the far end looks a lot like that in the upstream Easter Extension, which could bode well for finding a surface connection there... So we surveyed back from the far end, unfortunately slowed by the steaming up of Suunto lenses: lesson learned here is that whenever a survey trip is finished and we get back home the survey gear must be taken out and dried! When removing one of the lenses to clean the inside, erm, one of the female members of the group, ahem, dropped it into the boulder pile below -- so unfortunately we now have only 1½ Tandems until we can get a replacement lens! Hampered by this and the constricted passage we only got the first 40-odd metres surveyed, in 12 legs. But that's the worst chunk out of the way, including the 3 m loose squeeze. Current end station is situated below an obvious cairn (with the location drawn on a scrap of paper), in the passage just beyond the main waterfall inlet. We left Brown Shiver for a future trip; I'd say the rest of the main streamway in Pollahune still needs two survey trips and also some further investigation of some climbs could be advantageous... anyone up for a joint surface/underground dig at the entrance? ;-) NB: The description in COFAC is pretty dire; we couldn't figure out where the entrance series should join the passage. In fact it differs from the almost-identical wording in Irish Speleology 3.2 (ask me if you want a digital copy), it seems some important wording was removed, which stops it making sense!

Fat Tony