Post date: Aug 22, 2011 4:07:29 PM

Cavers: Petie, Martin.

The evening's caving started off with a look at a sink marked on the OS 6-inch map. This was 1km west of Polldangan and looked promising. It turned out to be a swampy hollow with a tiny stream trickling into a pool. Further disappointment was in store when the day's main attraction, Burncourt Quarry Cave, was added to the list of "lost caves". The entrance to this was found to have collapsed on itself a good number of years ago. The courteous farmer was happy however for me to take a look at the north quarry where I'd spotted a good prospect two years ago. The north quarry is about 150m north of the main quarry and contains a good number of draughty fissures. The largest of these has a number of boulders calcited between the walls but the sight of a small chamber just inside the entrance was incentive enough to dig the clay out from beneath the boulders at the entrance. I'd forgotten to bring a crowbar so the best tool available to us was the spanner/hubcap lever tool from the carjack. This was was actually reasonably efficient and in 20 minutes we'd cleared enough clay and boulders to squeeze beneath the jammed boulders and into the chamber. This was about 2m square and filled with old, dead, crumbling formations. Wriggling forwards got to a low section where an awkward right angled squeeze claimed a piece of my wetsuit. The fun ended a few meters beyond this at another 2m square chamber with no way on.

Surveying out revealed that a stunning total of 9m of passage (rounded up from 8.5m) had been discovered. Meeting the draft again at the entrance I was compelled to follow it back in again as it had been lost at the end of the cave. Just before the squeeze I wriggled forward and spotted an upward black void through boulders taking the draft. After rearranging some of the boulders I tried squeezing up but my head wouldn't fit. There seems to be two ways on beyond the obstruction, though I couldn't really get a good look. Caps or a very determined man with a lump hammer is required. There would appear to be a very large network of fissures between the new Burncourt Quarry Cave and the old one to the south, though evidently much of it is very small and heavily shattered.

Petie