Cavers - Steves ×3, Rob, Paul and Luca - 5hrs
After everyone assembled at Fowley's (a disrespectful hour late, courtesy of the Belcoo/Blacklion contingent), we quickly headed up the grassy lane, up the hill towards the usual gearing-up spot for Ramsons. Turning right at the top of the hill, we parked up in another spot further west with room for three cars at the end of the lane. This made for a quicker leisurely walk northwest, across the bog, to the large expanse of limestone pavement that intersects the two caves in the middle of the plateau.
Rob and I had visited both caves a few weeks earlier, so we were able to point Bus, Muh and Paul towards where to find the Sheepfold stream that sinks at the head of the limestone pavement. Meanwhile, Rob, Luca and I opted to rig the main Sulphur Pot entrance. I had dropped part of the way down the Sulphur shaft with Rob on our last visit, so had packed a slightly longer rope the second time around. I rigged off a large solid tree, above where a dry stream enters on the east side of the pot. Further rigging options were slightly limited, and the Sheepfold team had the drill, so I ended up traversing across and lassoing a sling off a strong protruding tree to the left of the rift, a few metres below the top of the pot.
This anchor was almost free hanging, but unfortunately, the rope ended up nipping slightly off the wall about 5 metres further down. So Rob and Luca added a rope protector on the rub point when they followed down to the fine green daylight shaft, to be greeted by the huge bell chamber and the remains of several exploded sheep at the bottom. Sheep carcasses aside, this was a pretty spectacular entrance pitch, fed by three small streamlets that sparkled brightly in the sun amongst the greenery in the first half of the shaft.
At the bottom, we quickly set about exploring the large boulder-strewn, square-cut main chamber. Tratman's ‘Leitrim, Eire, 1956’ report describes three prospects off the main chamber: two short, blind rifts behind pillars of rock, that have no prospects, and a continuation through a boulder pile under the wall on the south side. We agreed that the two rifts had no prospects. The rest of the guys appeared in the skylight at the end Sheepfold about 20 metres above, while we worked up the courage to push on through the boulder ruckle to the south. After a moderately intimidating squeeze amongst some large boulders, the cave continued for another 10 metres until the character of the rock changed to a sharp, pale grey, fluted limestone, that unfortunately appeared to crap out after a few metres in tight, narrow rifts and trickles of water.
Back out in the main chamber, the sheepfold crew joined us after rigging a couple of bolts at the head of their pitch. Rob arranged the team around the main chamber for a photo, before the two teams crossed over and headed back out to the surface to complete what has to be one of the top three crossover/through trips to be found in Leitrim. It was nice to exit out of a little bit of horizontal passage via Sheepfold, which is unusual for the caves in this part of the world!
Back on top, Muh, Bus and myself spent an hour prospecting in a number of rifts and holes in and around the edge of the limestone pavement. One or two of which might be worth more time. On the way back to the car, we stopped by a small surface stream that sank above a small waterfall pot to wash the sheep guts off our gear. This stream was sinking into a possible Steve(muh)-sized gap, so we spent a little while trying to engineer a mini dam across the river, but were not able to get much further than a hair wash.
All in all, the Sheepfold Cave to Sulphur Pot makes for a lovely ‘tourist’ trip that deserves more traffic if anyone ever gets around to sorting a better rig for the Sulphur Pot entrance. Slightly disappointing that the digging prospects at the bottom look poor, especially considering the impressive proportions of the main chamber, and the fact that Sulphur Pot is only half as deep as Ramsons! All of the water sinking on these hills has to go somewhere... it's just not clear if any of it will eventually go horizontal and human-sized, or if the ‘good’ silicified limestone and ill-developed geology are truly against us. Time will tell, as there is plenty more work to be done up in the Dartry Mountains yet.