Post date: Jul 18, 2012 8:41:26 PM

Cavers: Aileen, Éabha, Steve Bus, Steve Muh, Al

Saturday 14 July: a prolonged start saw us reaching Largy moor sometime in the afternoon, whereupon we diverged to look for Deep Pot on Largy. Bus and myself located one pretender, Aileen, Éabha and Muh another. We descended the latter first, as they seemed convinced, after waiting a long time for Muh to kit up and organise himself to rig. The rigging was off naturals the whole way down a narrow rift that descended in ramps and steps to a small chamber containing a dead sheep, giving a pleasant aroma to proceedings. Éabha and i were passed on our way down by Muh and Bus on their way out. At the end of the small elongate chamber another hole in the floor led downwards for another metre or 2 to an even smaller chamber. I volunteered to de-rig, and it seemed just escaped in time as there were a couple of largish spontaneous collapses behind me (honest, nowt to do with me!).

And so on to the next one, and the next one, and the next one, following a prominent north-south alignment of rifty potholes and caves southwards across the moor. Bus discovered a pleasant large horizontal cave, maybe 40m long and of generous proportions. It ended in a climb up unconsolidated fill to a promising high-level lead, although Aileen wasn't convinced. Muh made a couple of attempts to climb the choss, but wisely backed down. (Éabha entered this one a little after everyone else, after getting lost on the moor while searching for her light somewhere near Manorhamilton...) There followed a bit of delving in and out of holes, Muh and Aileen explored one, and there was also another one that i didn't enter so someone else will have to add a description of these. Instead i found a very promising hole towards the south end of the Mór Craic, which i could descend down a grassy slope to a large cliff, against which a trickle of water sank into a pile of boulders. (The moor was quite dry, after some recent wetness. Also, the Mór Craic points almost directly at Peakadaw Rising.)

I returned from my perambulation to find Bus and Muh busily engaged in rigging a 5th pothole, which sounded very promising so we resolved to return the next day - Bus' description of the depth was that he thought he'd missed the big hole with the rock he threw down it, it took so long to hit the bottom.

Sunday 15 July: a much earlier start saw us eagerly and speedily ascend the peat track to the moor (having left most of the luggage beside the Steves' big hole the night before). We also carried the drill, having remembered to bring some drill bits. Once on the moor, there was again some difference of opinion as to where the hole was, we had aligned it with a prominent house across the valley and the telecom mast, and also marked a pillock with a yellow tackle sack. Following the knobs Bus managed to relocate the crack, and Aileen was recalled from searching Donegal.

Two ground anchors in soggy mud backed up with a long tether the main belay to a spindly tree which allowed us to descend the first pitch of about 8m to a free-climbable section of rift about 10m high, with loose cherty rock abounding (one might usefully use the excess rope from pitch 1 as a handline here...). At the base a spacious ledge gave Aileen, Éabha and myself a good view of the Steves' as they rigged down a loose ramp to the head of the main pitch, which opened out into what appeared a large chamber; in the ceiling of rift the were some brownish flowstone formations. The bottom couldn't be espied, and rocks fell for a few seconds to the floor. Muh constructed the first natural belay at the head of the ramp (yes, constructed, from rocks and with his own hands), Bus rebelayed the rope to a natural midway down, and then started placing spits. A y-hang spanned the rift, and then became a tri-hang as the natural on the ramp was built into it, and then a quad-hang when he placed a 3rd spit beside his ear at full stretch (bear in mind that Bus' ear is further from his feet than some can reach, meaning that smaller riggers/deriggers will be at a disadvantage). Well backed-up, Bus started to descend, and ran out of rope. A second was joined to the first and he reached the floor of the chamber. Muh followed, doing some gardening just below the pitchhead, then Aileen and myself after refreshing Éabha on how to pass a knot. Just below the pitchhead were a few large rocks, overhanging the rope, and held up by each other and not a lot else.

At the bottom of an impressive chamber, with daylight lancing in from the pitchhead, Bus stood on a mound of rock at the beginning of a huge passage, 10x5m, and when we'd all gathered together we set off into it. Sadly its girth wasn't a reflection on its length and it soon ended, although an aven led upwards at the end and may be worth a closer look. However halfway along there was an alcove tucked behind a wall of fill, and in this alcove another funnel-shaped pot, a bit like one of the pots in the Bridge Chamber, Carrowmore. A traverse around the rim, on chert and hope, led Bus and Éabha to a small horizontal passage that probably linked up with one or two choked alcoves at the base of the main pitch. Bus then climbed halfway down the funnel to the head of a short pitch, while Muh placed another spit at the top for a handline. Two naturals at the base of the slope sufficed to rig the drop of about 7m. Éabha followed the Steves, and pull-tested the 2 naturals, not once, not twice, but three times, confirming that they were indeed safe; Aileen and i watched and winced (half of one collapsed when it was derigged). At the bottom of the pot exploration ended, although Bus and i both heard the sound of a largish stream, from a small muddy alcove (?blocked passage?) that may be worth digging. There's also a choke, but as this lies below the floor of chamber/passage above it's probably not worth digging, likely being collapsed fill, with which the cave abounds - the main pitch descends the face of the infill in the rift.

So the question is, is this a new find? Preliminary research cannot find anything that matches it. It's definitely not Deep Pot on Largy as the survey in Jones' compilation does not match in any way. Nor is it Pollnaswithin, another pot of comparable depth (60-70m range) described on Largy, which according to Coleman lies in an east-west rift series - series 1. The north-south series (Mór Craic) Coleman calls series 2. If this is so, then it could be what Jones lists as Largy II-4 at 60m; Deep Pot, 76m, is apparently Largy II-1 (Pollnaswithin, either 51m or 71m deep, is I-2), so one might theorise that Deep Pot is the 3rd pot north or south of what is presently No Name Pot. There was no evidence that anyone had been down, although one could perhaps rig ladders off long tethers.

A.