Post date: Dec 9, 2009 1:45:42 PM

Stephen Macnamara, Pavel Cesnak, almost TJ Connolly, almost James Armstrong.

Up for the QUBCC weekend in Leitrim Lakes hostel, we hoped to find Ramson's Pot in the Dartry Hills, just west of the road between Manorhamilton and Rossinver. Plenty of faffage, including TWO trips back to the hostel for forgotten gear, ensured we weren't setting off until a healthy half past two in the afternoon.

We were working off a poor replica of a small scale map, which made locating the cave difficult - I think we would have walked from a different point if we had the benefit of a proper map. We found Sandy Lough on top of the mountain, and made our way to the nearby smaller Lough Adunny. The cave is supposed to be close to this. However, whether it be due to an extremely inconspicuous entrance, or inaccuracy of the map, we couldn't find it despite a good couple of hours' searching, for at least 200m on all sides of the lake. At half past 5 it was getting dark and Pavel and I called it a day (TJ and James were not with us, having left the car later and not being able to find us on the mountain).

It was a good hour's walk across the moor back to the car, using the moon for navigation. On the way back we stumbled across a small cliff of good limestone with a little stream sinking. Just down the bed from where the water disappeared, there was an entrance about 1m high by 3m wide, into a chamber with a mud floor. At the far end of the chamber up a slope was an exit, which brought us to more of the cliff. A gap was visible down through some boulders lying against the cliff, and we were just able to squeeze in.

This brought us immediately to a 4-metre drop, with no sign of previous cavers, which we rigged for SRT. The floor of the 4m x 10m chamber consists of limestone blocks. We checked out all available gaps, and were able to squeeze down for another couple of metres, but everything chokes after that. Digging would be difficult enough - would need winches and scaff. There was no sound of the stream we hoped we would relocate - but I suppose it must be down there somewhere.

The skeleton of a fox lay curled up in a corner of the chamber - poor mite.*see below - ain't a fox

No name for the cave yet until we verify whether it is already known.*see below - no such luck

Steve.