Five days of Mayhem, Gorteen Exped 2020

Day 1 (5 Sept)

Fenagh Cave was discovered in the early 70s by the ISA, and probably only revisited on one occasion since - by the Shannon Group in about 2015. At the outset of the Gorteen Exped, Fenagh was a prime objective, and the first task was to find it. I’d never been exactly sure where it was, but presumed it was the large sink recorded near the road over Barracashlaun - it seemed like a likely enough spot. Doing this task on the first day were Richie, Éabha, Emily and Camilla. The spot I’d indicated as being Fenagh turned out to be a pothole heavily afflicted by dumping - there were huge amounts of rubbish in it. Sadly Fenagh seemed to be no more. However they did check out a very interesting and apparently unrecorded sink (G7) about a kilometer further west along the hillside, where a large stream gushed into a slanted rift.

Day 2 (6 Sept)

Unfortunately, despite the fact that Richie described the supposed ’Fenagh Cave’ (a 10m deep pot full of rubbish directly adjacent to a roadway) several expedition members who’d been to the actual Fenagh Cave (a shallow gully no-where near a road and with no dumping), no-one twigged that these were two different places. So the following day Emily and Camilla led myself and Becks up to G7. The entrance climb looked a bit damp alright, but a floor seemed to be visible through the spray about 6m down. So I popped on my hood and went for it. The climb angled down a rift, with lots of handy footholds. The water crashing down over my head and back was a bit distracting though, so it was with relief I reached the bottom. The stream noisily flowed away down a rift and I clambered giddily after it. A low tight wet bit ended at the top of a 2m climb, and dropping down the passage went sharply north. The passage split, with the water going right and the easiest way on to the left. This hit a 5m climb. Down this I went, and at the bottom another 5m climb. This one looked a tad impassable, and ducking through a veil of spray I peered over the lip to see the water crashing down another pitch just around the corner. Rather than attempt the exposed 5m climb back up, I followed the water back up, through a pair of snaggy wet climbs, to emerge back in the main passage. I arrived back on the surface exhilarated after five hectic minutes of whitewater exploration. Mayhem was the name I settled on, which was fairly appropriate for the madness I’d witnessed.

Day 3 (16 Sept)

The return was made three days later, with Matt, Eszter, and two ladders. I’d been thinking about the best way to tackle the pitch that had stopped me and had decided on ladders as the best way to get down. The bit of passage with the pitches was very unusual - it was clearly along a significant fault as there was little limestone on show - instead there were lumps of mangled chert in a strange calcite matrix. There was little hope of drillling here, partly because of the amount of spray, but also because the walls were so jagged and uneven. Instead we had a load of slings, and ladders which would hopefully negate the need to come up with nice free hangs away from the walls.

At the pitch head we quickly rigged the first ladder, a fairly easy descent of 5m to a ledge above a 9m pitch, with another pitch visible beyond. After bit of hemming and hawing about the best way to proceed we tied in the second ladder, Matt and I climbed down to the ledge above the second drop. The top of the ladder was lowered down to use and a handy flake was used to secure it. Matt was then able to belay me from a rope, which was belayed back to the top of the first drop. This seemed a bit mad, but it was exactly the kind of technique I read about in Chevalier’s Subterranean Climbers, and it worked well for them. With Matt belaying me I headed off down the ladder, under the full force of the water. This was fairly refreshing, and it was easier to walk down the walls holding the ladder rather than fumble looking for the rungs under my feet. At the bottom I had a look at the next drop. After a shouted conversation with Matt it seemed as if there was enough lifeline to belay me down the next bit. Off I went again, this pitch a manageable 6m. At the bottom there was another pitch, looking like 6m (but 8.5 in reality), but I was out of ladder. A quick look about and I could see good limestone to put a bolt, and away from the spray, so drilling was an option. The return up the ladders was fine, except for the second drop, which was a ‘close your eyes and feel for the rungs and look down so you can breathe’ sort of pitch.

Day 4 (12 Sept)

It was Saturday before there was resources to go back to Mayhem, as we were calling it. Paul and Steve Muh were recruited, and Jock was a late addition, managing to escape fatherly duties for the afternoon. While we were waiting for Jock to join us at the parking spot I took Steve and Paul for a quick look at ‘Fenagh Cave’, the rubbish infested hole near the road. A quick look and Steve confirmed it wasn’t the Fenagh Cave he’d been to five years earlier. My heart sank as he described his recollection of Fenagh, which tallied neatly with the bits of Mayhem I’d seen. A survey of Fenagh was called up on a phone and there it was. A bit mangled (Grade 3 survey my arse) but the same cave. Disappointing to find that that the wild journey into a virgin pothole was just a mirage, but at least Fenagh Cave wasn’t lost under a pile of rubbish like we’d thought.

Jock arrived and we headed for Fenagh, having a chat with a startled farmer and his son along the way. Just before reaching Fenagh we found Badger Pot, a smallish sink about 25/30m east of Fenagh Cave. This is a 3m climb leading to 20m crawl reaching to the lip of a drop that’s too tight to enter. The crawl was a bit choked up but it’s a worthwhile project to dig this out and try and forge a connection with Fenagh.

Reaching Fenagh, Muh rigged a rope to do the entrance climb as an abseil. This would prove to be useful later on. At the head of the pitches I began rigging down, and soon returned when I realised I hadn’t a clue what I was doing. While Muh took over rigging duties, Jock left us around this time to do some digging at Badger Pot. A few minutes later Paul and I were zipping down the pitches on Muh’s rigging. He’d found some unlikely naturals to get a clean, free-hanging rig all the way to the bottom of the third drop. An impressive bit of work. At the fourth he’d run out of slings, so we placed a rock screw to get us down. At the bottom of this the stream went off in a crawl, doubling back under itself to another pitch, 6m deep. Another rock screw went in, and a donkey’s dick was commandeered for a deviation, and then Muh was at the bottom. Hot damn.

From the foot of the pitch, a short scramble reached a big chamber with a splashy aven coming in, presumably the Badger Pot water. From here a low crawl went off, but only Muh went in, Paul and I started surveying back to the pitches. At the top of the fifth pitch we met Jock coming in, fresh from a half-hours digging in Badger Pot.

Sadly, my compass was smashed at the top of the fifth pitch, meaning that all the legs from here had to be estimated based on the jointing of the rock. Luckily the main pitches are all on a N-S fault and everything is at right angles to this, so it wasn't such an inaccurate survey. By the time Paul and I were half way up the main set of pitches, it was apparent that there was more water coming in than when we were on our way down. This was a bit concerning, but when i reached the top of the pitches I had a good look about and the water levels still seemed to be below what I'd encountered on my first visit here. So we carried on surveying. A bit further up, through a rift or two we reached an 3m climb where the bags have to be passed through a wet slot at the top. Rocks dislodged by Paul ahead were clattering through this under the force of the water. Jock caught up with me and asked if we were bailing - I said things were fine and we had time to get out. He went back to help Steve with the derigging. As this was going on, Steve, huched over a bag stuffing rope at the top of the pitches was suddenly aware of a new waterfall crashing over his back from somewhere above, and was beginning to get a bit worried.

A few minutes later Paul and I reached the bottom of the entrance climb. It was pretty wild looking - a sheet of white water crashing down over the rock, but it was well passable. Paul clipped in and prussiked up through the water. After a while I reckoned Paul was clear of the pitch and I clipped my bag with my drill and the surveying kit onto the end of the rope and prussiked up after a few hurried words with Jock. Head down, the water crashed over my head and the only option was to feel the way up the rope with the hand jammer. After about 10 or 15 seconds the water relented and I was at the top. Up I hauled my bag, which miraculously came up in one go. I unclipped and sent the rope back down, unsure as to whether it would make it all the way back down to Jock. With no way of saying rope free I just held the rope and whipped it in the hope that the water would pull the end back down to the bottom. Eventually I felt the rope go taut and Jock appeared, white-eyed, a short while later.

Steve joined us a minute later, minus the rope bags, which were left at the bottom. He'd free-climbed up with the rope in hand rather than risk getting stuck to the rope and unable to descend back down. On the surface it didn't look all that bad, through clearly a fair bit of water had fallen. We tramped quickly back to the cars, where it started raining heavily as we changed.

Day 5 (13 Sept)

The following day Muh and I trudged back over the moor to retrieve the bags. I was the only one in caving gear, and had to make a few trips up and down the climb to fish out the two rigging bags. It’s an awkward snaggy bollocks of climb to shift bags on.

Overall it’s a bit disappointing (and a tad embarrassing) that Mayhem turned out to be Fenagh. But we had a hell of a time while we thought it was virgin. All the same though, what a fucking cave it is. The noise, the water, the constant spray, make it a fantasticly wild cave, and it’s a great bit of sporting caving to get to the bottom of it. It should come with a weather warning though - it's pretty responsive.

The survey indicated a depth of 56m, much deeper than the 45m claimed by the ISA. The connection with Badger is tantalising - over 50m of pitches waiting to be entered and rigged. It’s a prime lead for us. And according to Steve, the crawls at the bottom are a bit more interesting than indicated on the old survey. So the mayhem isn’t over here yet.

Petie