Post date: Jan 18, 2010 7:30:58 PM

Cavers: SteveMuh, Penguin.

With Saturday promising to be dry all day, and nothing especially terrible forecast in the days before, i reckoned that a trip to Monaghan would be possible, to search for the lost Poll'd cave with Creevy Cave for dessert. That was a little optimistic, as the county seemed to still be suffering from the heavy weather earlier in the new year...

After breakfasting at Quinn's we set off for the Tullyvaragh area, where Poll'd had last been seen, and parked up by the dry bridge. Here the Tullyvaragh River passes under the road through two large concrete tunnels to immediately sink in a moderately sized depression. In normal water levels all the water sinks in an impenetrable muddy hole in the bottom of the depression, however a dry gorge runs parallel to the old Castleblaney road into a large field, and takes water in flood. Today the depression was filled by a large, brown and foamy lake, and the water that couldn't fit in the cave was overflowing into the field, and from there under the N2. With Poll'd lying somewhere downstream on the subterranean route of the Tullyvaragh it seemed unlikely that we would get into it. We still had to find it, so we kitted up and armed ourselves with a couple of crowbars and started searching on the downstream side of the dry bridge, following the river out into the field, but nothing was obvious. Above the sink and on the right of the road was a large new nursing home and holiday house (?) development, with neat lawns - we wondered if they had filled in Poll'd...

We then turned our attention to the upstream side, where we had earlier spotted the abutments of an old bridge. Since the ICC report described Poll'd as being to the right of the old Castleblaney road going north this older road offered another possible right-hand side. Among the inevitable rubbish we spotted an old oil drum, and started digging here. Eventually our enthusiasm was tempered by the amount of rubbish we'd need to clear and we decided to take some refreshments and re-read the ICC report. At a bit of a loose end we started walking towards the N2, to see where the overflow water from Tullyvaragh was going - perhaps Poll'd lay under the N2 but the entrance had been culverted to allow it to take flood water... However we found the other end of the culvert on the other side of the N2, and for want of something better to do we crossed back under the N2 by the culvert.

In the next revision of our plan we decided to refer to local knowledge. The inhabitant of the first house we called at knew nothing about any caves but helpfully pointed out the landowner's house. We headed there, to meet a bemused wife (we'd been seen earlier in the field) who phoned her husband to tell him that two cavers were looking for him, and then sent us round to the backdoor to wait for him. Half expecting a bit of an earful for trespassing, we were surprised to be invited in to the kitchen for a cuppa and some homemade bread, muddy caving oversuits and wet feet notwithstanding. When the farmer arrived for his dinner he helpfully brought out his property map and showed us where Poll'd had been. Sadly the deep shakehole it had been in had offered a convenient dumping place for spoil from the construction of the N2 and so the entrance was now deeply buried. The only known dry prospects for entry to this system now lie through the Tullyvaragh sink (an older sink in side of the depression is blocked by flood debris).

Having been defeated by Poll'd we thought we'd try our luck with Creevy, although i wasn't hopeful. And so it proved. After a quick check on the Quarry Rising we started across the fields to the Creevy sink. The Mile River was so full that it was flowing in the flood bypass to the first two sections of the cave, and there was an impressive torrent flowing into Creevy. The duck entrance was filled with branches which we cleared, but it was well sumped. Out of interest we took a look in the middle section of cave, accessible through a skylight. Downstream was sumped completely but we were able to get upstream for 25-30 m, and noticed a distinct smell of fuel. We then crossed the hill to Creevy Rising, where it was possible to enter the ICC Chamber and swim/wade to Divers' Despair. The water was very cold, and a little oily. There was no way on from Divers' Despair, as Pariahs' Way was sumped completely. (It is possible that this was a similar condition to what the ICC experienced on their visit in 1964, when they entered the ICC Chamber but got no further, perhaps not having suitable clothing.)

And so ended the first Monaghan trip of the year.

P.