I'm contemplating an evening trip to the Peak tomorrow. As we've had a long dry spell are there any caves that could be more accessible, sumps that dry out etc, anything that takes advantage of this weather??
Thanks.

-P8 Third streamway- ask "ANortherner" on here.
-Knotlow round trip? I've forgotten what it's called, but its down the coffin level at the bottom and via fourways shaft. Should be on the survey on the DCA website. Beware of the usual things like bad air on less well travelled routes.
-Lathkill head via the entrance crawl?
-Some of the Manifold valley sinks.

There must be others.

Discussion on the knotlow trip back in 2006
https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=2219.0

Probably the same warnings about bad air now, be careful.

Merlin streamway to sump 5 is a good trip if you do flowerpot in Carlswark to Merlin S5 then out Merlin mine

^that one, yes yes yes. 

With regards to Knotlow - you can get through the Coffin level in most weather, it doesn't necessarily have to be super dry. However a trip past 4-ways into Crimbo Pipe is very aqueous - so much so I'm not sure if anybody has been through it in recent times and it could well be blocked (I certainly have never heard of anybody completing the round trip), so its probably not worth the effect.

Air these days in Knotlow is much better than it was 10 years ago - I've never had a problem as far as 4-ways.

With regards to dry weather trips, The Lower Bung Streamway in Peak is fantastic fun and pretty sketchy in anything other than very dry weather.

alastairgott said:

Discussion on the knotlow trip...

Click to expand...

Also you can find the Survey on the SSSI Audit from this page https://peakdistrictcaving.info/home/the-caves/lathkill-dale-monyash/knotlow-cavern-engine-shaft

Coffin Level- Crimbo Hollow (fourways)- Rift chamber- Crimbo Pipe- East Level. I think the Eldon were the last ones to go that way, I've seen a report on the internet somewhere with BT's name on it.

But the Full detailed EPC survey seems to have gone missing from the DCA/Peak district caving pages.

Wharfedale  Sump in Sleets Gill should be dry . Potential dig in there going forward and up .

I will prob be down there this Thurs eve, but I am staying away from Hyperthermia this time! I will take a look at the sump before going up Hydrophobia. But this does not help the original poster as he is asking for Peak caves, I can't help with that one.

I've once - many years ago - been through the normal sump as only a wet crawl at the 'bottom' of P8, (I don't know if that's the 3rd streamway referred to above) and remember feeling very spooked by the dive lines above my head. I have been wondering if it's dry enough to repeat this.

There's a write up on the SUSS website. www.shefcavers.org.uk/2018/05/23/dye-tracing-more-like-dry-tracing-divining-the-perryfoot-valley

IF that trip through the lower levels of the mine (Crimbo round trip?) is so hard then how did the miners do it? I've done mechano and thought that was bad enough so how did the miners manage to work in places like that? I know they were tough but surely you could get more work done with slightly bigger passages. Or would it not be very hard if it wasn't flooded (I'm guessing the miners pumped it out).

Miners have ingenious ways of getting rid of water. I've seen a few mines with culverting down the side of the passage, you can in some cases hear the water gurgling down the culverting.

We uncovered a culvert in JH West, about 30m from the entrance shaft when we were beavering away in there. It drained the passage in front by about a foot and a half to floor level.

If the culverting fails either by collapses in the roof or simple accidental blocking, it will fill up with water.

we've also seen drains cut into the side of the passages and entrances to direct the water into a more useful (and less splashy place). A key example of this is the entrance to Son of Longcliffe, where the miners have cut a drain in the rock around the drop and then allowed it to enter the drop where they wanted, thus they have reduced the chance of Random drips dropping on you.

There will be more examples of little drains cut into the rock in mines that we pass quite a lot, but the silent job they do will either be redundant or unnoticed to the passing visitor.

As for Mechano, I don't know, it's still on my reserve list. I suspect there could be lower levels as we've seen what looks like a winding station in Hillocks.

Crimbo Swallet is exactly that, a swallet, where the water disappears down a natural section, the miners would have doubtlessly exploited it to their own end. But whether they were ever down there prospecting is debatable.
much like the miners in Oxlow probably visiting new Oxlow once to check for lead, but when it would have been seen to be lead free they left.

OK so a lot of the tight passages in mines are drainage tunnels rather than mining tunnels?

Eeep, not exactly, I was mainly referring to culverts the size of a drainpipe and little drains about the size of a Permanent Marker or bigger.

Tight passages in mines are either backfilled mine passage, "pipe workings" where the lead doesn't follow normal veins (or seams) or natural passage where the miners have not bothered to go.
There will of course be exceptions....

Speleotron said:

IF that trip through the lower levels of the mine (Crimbo round trip?) is so hard then how did the miners do it? I've done mechano and thought that was bad enough so how did the miners manage to work in places like that? I know they were tough but surely you could get more work done with slightly bigger passages. Or would it not be very hard if it wasn't flooded (I'm guessing the miners pumped it out).

Click to expand...

You that gert big pump at the bottom the 'engine' shaft.

2xw said:

Merlin streamway to sump 5 is a good trip if you do flowerpot in Carlswark to Merlin S5 then out Merlin mine

Click to expand...

As we had to go in Merlin to rig the pitch we figured it was best to do a simple trip in out. Got to Merlin 5 (nice bit of passage) then lots of poking around in boulders in the Gimli area..

Cheers for all the suggestions

We went through the Carlswark resurgence both ways a few times in the dry summer of 2010, so that might be open now - or soon. That also breaks into a very narrow and claustrophobic mine level half-full of very muddy water - or very thin mud, I couldn't decide, as I was trying to get out of it as quickly as possible. But again, big respect to the miners for working in that space. I can only assume that this was an early sough that used the early resurgence as an exit before it was blocked. Or perhaps it went deeper, under the road? I know there's a lot of old stuff written about Carlswark that suggests it was very different before all the soughs were driven.

Anyway, if anyone fancies a more extreme version of the Windpipe, it might be worth a try at the moment.

Anyone know if P8 or Merlin sumps are open?