Lettera Rising, 23 July 2023

It wasn't until the Easter weekend while travelling down to the Student Caving Forum that I managed to visit the site. The house directly opposite the rising didn't have anyone in but a neighbour that was out doing a few rounds stopped and I got talking. She seemed quite interested in what I was doing and said that she would pass on my details to the landowner when she was next talking to him. When she left I went over and looked at the rising which despite the large amount of flow coming out of it looked like it had good potential to dive. 

The site was very visible from the road and there was a lot of local traffic passing so I decided to hold off on diving it until I had the landowners permission and ideally when the water levels were a bit lower. A few days later I got a phone call from the landowner who was very nice and gave me permission to investigate further. He mentioned that up until very recently the local villages raw sewage was pumped straight into the Turlough which serves as the sink for the water in the resurgence. This more than anything else probably explains why divers have stayed clear of it until now.

Fast forward 4 months later and I still haven't managed to get back to it due to life getting in the way and the terrible weather that has been characteristic of summer 2023 in Ireland. As I was en route to Gort to meet up with Jim for a dive, he texted me when I reached Athlone, letting me know that he wouldn't be able to make it. I decided that even with the massive amounts of rain that had fallen in the previous 2 days that I would check out Lettera Rising anyway.

While driving there the Glenamaddy Turlough was at the same level as it was back in April. The flow coming from the resurgence was just as high as well and also noticeably browner due to flood. I Carried my kit over to where the steps were on the left hand bank of the river just below the limestone pavement. The flow looked slightly less on this side. 

After kitting up I decided to take a look at the right hand side(left bank) before putting on my fins. Just below the surface there appeared to be a way on through a slight restriction so I pushed through against a very heavy flow in very poor visibility. Looks like there is a cave here after all! I put in my first belay and pushed on keeping the wall to my right, the cave opened up after a meter or two and I could feel a large space to my left, more than a body length. The height of the passage appeared to increase to over a meter as well. The passage was also extremely cherty which made finding a belay to tie off to difficult enough.

After placing the second belay the carabiner with my snoopy loops got pulled out of my hands by the current. Continuing on the floor seemed to drop again and appeared to be a false floor made out of chert. My next two belays were just wrapped around stones. I stopped when I had reeled out 25m of line and was at a depth of 3.5m. The conditions were not getting any better with Vis still between 30-40cm and flow pushing me back if I wasn't braced against the cave. I took out the camera and spent a few minutes capturing the conditions before putting it away and reeling my way back to the entrance. Not having fins on here was probably an advantage as it stopped me from shuttlecocking as I faced away from the flow reeling in the line. Got back out to the surface happy to have discovered a new cave.

After a few minutes I swam my way over to the left side of the rising as you look at it from the bridge. The flow was noticeably stronger here and it was a struggle to not be pulled back towards the sluice boards. While pulling on weeds coming out of the entrance I was able to poke my head in a bit on this side of the entrance. The passage on this side was much larger, The flow was also much stronger on this side so I left it and got out of the water and continue with the exploration at a later date when conditions were more favourable.

The site and the area surrounding it is definitely worthy of more investigation by cavers. The water coming from the cave has been traced to the two sinks in Glenamaddy Turlough 4km to the East. The landowner mentioned a shakehole now filled in to the right of his house when he was a kid and a large steep tree lined depression exists to the North-East

Hugh