Something That Wasn't Gimli's Dream (Carlswark / Merlin's Mine)

thehungrytroglobite

Well-known member
Greetings darkness-dwellers,

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a passage I found at the base of the Eyam Dale Shaft this week.
It was at the end of a Carlswark round trip (my first time in the cave), and I had been planning on having a look at the connection to Merlin's Mine. Unfortunately, the sandwich bag in which I had so lovingly tied my survey had given up on me during some soggy section of the trip and the survey had disintegrated into mush. I thought I'd still have a go at finding it anyway, relying purely on my memory of the survey from earlier.

What I did was: climb slightly up the base of the pitch to an opening on the opposite side to the passage leading into Carlswark. I then found a small squeeze-like opening which I slithered through, crawled left and then right to a larger chamber with some nice white stuff on the walls. I think there were maybe 2 of these, in the second chamber there was a hole at the back of it on the left with a puddle at the bottom and a stemple on top. This didn't look like it went anywhere, but there were footprints going down a hole straight ahead.

So I followed these, down a mud slide which was made even smoother by a flat rubber conveyor-belt type thing, into a very long, muddy and tight passage. I crawled through this, which and then up into a space where I wedged myself up the mud, into another passage which was even smaller, tighter, and muddier than the last one. We're talking thicker-than-mistral mud here. I went along here for a bit but it kept going and, feeling happy enough that I'd found the connection and remembering that there was a newbie diligently waiting for me to return to the base of the Eyam Dale shaft, I reversed backwards until I found a space to turn around in a funky head-over-heels maneuver. Getting back down the narrow vertical drop and back to the other passage was interesting - the lack of turn around space and slippery mud forced me to drop into a full on handstand before slithering into the other passage that way, feeling very much like the cave-wyrm my housemates keep warning me about.

Anyway, it was only after looking at a few surveys afterwards that I am now wondering if I did find Gimli's dream at all - the passage was far too narrow, long and muddy for what it appears to be. Perhaps I was instead in a different offshoot? But why were there such obvious footprints leading down into it? Does this passage have a name? Should I have taken a closer look at the puddle with the stemple?

If anyone could answer these questions I would be very grateful! I'm itching to go back and have a proper look next time.

Anna  :D
 

tdobson

Member
My unhelpful guess with lack of knowledge of the area suggests maybe these two places?

But I don't know.

Looking forward to hearing the answer!
 

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martinb

Member
Hi Anna

At the base of Eyam Shaft, there is an opening opposite and higher than the passage into Carlswark.

At the bottom of this is a small slot, go left, slither, then right into a chamber which has moonmilk on the walls. There's a big mud/scree cone leading upwards in the middle.

On the opposite side to where you came in is a dug connection (about 1.5m deep) to Merlin's and Gimli's.

Drop down that, go left, slither, then right, and you pop out into Merlins proper.

However, the only conveyor belt I know off in that area is just beyond NorthWest Passage before you reach the streamway in Cockle passage.
 

thehungrytroglobite

Well-known member
martinb said:
Hi Anna

At the base of Eyam Shaft, there is an opening opposite and higher than the passage into Carlswark.

At the bottom of this is a small slot, go left, slither, then right into a chamber which has moonmilk on the walls. There's a big mud/scree cone leading upwards in the middle.

On the opposite side to where you came in is a dug connection (about 1.5m deep) to Merlin's and Gimli's.

Drop down that, go left, slither, then right, and you pop out into Merlins proper.

However, the only conveyor belt I know off in that area is just beyond NorthWest Passage before you reach the streamway in Cockle passage.

Hmm... the chamber with the moonmilk and the scree slope is where the entrance to this muddy passage was. However from that description and from the survey it seems like this tight muddy passage was not the correct route?? If so does it have a name and does it go anywhere?

I might pop back tomorrow and have a better look...
 

Alex

Well-known member
You have probably done this trip ages ago but...

I ventured into that yesterday but from the other-side, i.e. I dropped in from Merlin, on my way through the dig with the conveyor belts was on my left. I did not go further than the top of that climb up as it was not drafting and I was trying to find the way on at the time. I too spent ages in that same chamber just before trying to find the way on and just as I was giving crawled up what looked to be a dead-end crawl into Eyam Dale shaft area. (Though I had not realised I had gotten there until I started recognising bits of Carlswalk further on from 15 years ago!). I somehow then remembered my way out to the Gin entrance, only once I got out I realised I had not clipped my SRT gear to the rope so I would have to go back, doh!

Anyway, that crawl is not the connection the way on for you would have been to ignore that passage with the conveyer belt in it, which would be on the right and instead drop down the hole in the floor ahead of you in the chamber, held up by shoring with a bar partially crossing it. At the bottom you then slither through the troft of water that has formed at the bottom, then an awkward slide down (well awkward the other way) brings you into larger taped passage.

From here continue through another collapse and hang a right into a boulder choke area, dropping down a hole in the floor and crawling along for some distance until the way on gets too low. A hidden climb up on the left leads into a small chamber above the boulders. Once up go up again over the boulders in-front of you (a slight left) and over boulders into a decorated chamber (don't instead take the more obvious route on the right, which was where I went on the way in and had a bloody hard squeeze in it). Through a hole at the back, you enter another decorated chamber and from here you just follow your nose as there are no other routes going through a two wet trofts until you reach mine workings. I believe if you turn left, it leads to the sumps. To get to the pitch turn right and follow the narrow rift up and then climb back over where you have been to get to the bottom of the pitch. (Assuming you pre-rigged it).

From there it's easy, cross over a hole in the floor, go straight on in the chamber (higher route) and then turn left after a short climb down. Keep going straight and you will pop out on the surface.
 
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