Time: 5.5 hours
Team: Steve Muh, Aileen, Eszter, Petie
Aim: Push digs, derig.
Pollnagort was one of the bigger rediscoveries of the Gorteen exped, being a fairly major 55m deep cave that no-one had ever really known anything about before. On the final trip Muh, Eoghan and Eszter had dropped down a narrow rift into about 50m of horizontal passage, ending in a drafting dig. On the way to the end of the passage, a cross-rift was passed, with the northern branch also reaching a drafting dig. The leads were really interesting as they were in some of the very rare horizontal passage on this mountain, and because the main rift of Pollnagort was aligned directly with Pollnaleprechauns 500m away. With no time or tools to push these, the cave was left rigged at the end of the exped, with plans for a prompt return to push the digs. However a succession of lockdowns intervened and over three months later, Steve and Eszter returned with myself and Aileen in tow to push and derig the cave, lest another lengthy lockdown leave the rope and metalwork exposed to the elements for another 4 months.
The wind-turbine parking spot was vigorously windy as usual, but out on the moor it was pleasant enough, although swampy underfoot. Pollnagort was a pleasant enough pot, starting off with a 15m daylight drop down to a large ledge with streams dribbling in on all sides. A bollocks of a traverse leads to the Y-hang for the next pitch of 20m. At the bottom of this pitch there’s a low, tight u-bend leading onwards, but at the opposite end of there was an ascending rift leading up to a tight section choked with cherty gravel. This wasn’t one of our digging objectives but Steve had marked this rift on his survey with a draft symbol so I scrambled up for a look. Beyond the end you could see past a narrowing of the rift to a black void beyond. Interesting.
But we were digging elsewhere so I wriggled through the u-bend and through the dribbly wetness of The Showerbath. Another pitch of 15m was beyond, and then down The Elevator into the horizontal passage. This was a really unusual bit of passage - almost dustily dry, with a floor of clean-washed chert giving way to dry mud. Steve and Aileen wasted no time in getting going at the northern branch and within a few minutes had broken through to 6m of passage ending at another, less-promising, dig. On to the main course then, the drafting hole at the end of the main passage. This passage ended in a grotto with a 1.5m tall column. Near the base of this was a small pool with the rock coming close down to water level. It looked less promising than Steve remembered.
After widening out the approach Steve slithered in leg-first but couldn’t find much in the way of a continuation. After some more mud was scooped out Steve was lowered in head-first to look under the roof of the pool, but there was nothing really visible. The draft must vanish into a crack in the roof. After dragging Steve out by the feet and letting him dry out his beard, attention moved back to the northward lead. Aileen attacked this with the most enthusiasm, roaring “WE’RE NOT LEAVING TILL I CAN SEE ROUND THIS CORNER” back to the rest of us. But leave some of us did, Eszter and I had decided to head back to the gravel-filled rift half way down the cave, while Steve stayed behind to help Aileen. In the end they’d see around that corner, but it’s continuing small and would need a dig tray to shift the spoil. Not a hugely promising dig.
The Elevator proved to be a bastard for me to get up - it’s a 2.5m high vertical tube without much room to manouvre, especially for the long-limbed. My first attempt was a minute of strenuous effort inching up the tube, before my strength gave out and I slid back down to the bottom. After catching my breath, I had a bit of a re-think. Some large rocks were built up at the bottom of the climb to give me a platform to stand on, and with my arms in a different position I managed it on the second go.
Reaching the dig, Eszter and I set to work. It was a remarkably forgiving dig - the material was a mix of sand and smallish chert nodules which were easily loosened up and kicked and shovelled back down the rift. A large cone of debris gradually spread into the chamber behind us. Fifteen minutes of vigorous activity had shifted a few cubic metres of debris, and when Aileen and Steve arrived up there was fresh effort given. Beyond the pinch point the gravel slope banked up hard, needing careful prodding with a crowbar to cause the slope to collapse towards the digger. After about half an hour’s digging it was possible for me to carefullly squeeze upwards through the hole.
Beyond the passage came in a the side of a shaft after just a bodylength. Below was a 4m climb, and above the passage rose up into a calcited rift perhaps 10m high. There didn’t seem to be much visible below but Steve helped me rig a handline to get down the undercut climb. After clambering down I was able to confirm that there was nothing happening here. The draft breezing through the dig must simply go up to the surface, coming out in some obscure crack in the entrance shakehole.
I cracked out the survey gear to get this on the survey while Aileen and Eszter headed out with half the derigged bags and the digging gear, with myself and Steve following behind.
In summary, a 5.5 hour trip, fairly tough on soft post-lockdown bodies. We found about 20m across the two small additions. The cave is now fully derigged. Doesn’t look like there’s anything promising enough to return to, the small pool might be worth a look at following a drought, but Steve didn’t think there was anything human-sized under the water. Might be another 45 years before there’s another trip in here.
-Petie