Most Hideous Hole
- Thread starter yrammy
- Start date
Speleofish
Active member
Based on limited experience, the least enjoyable thing I've ever tried (and failed) is Browne's Hole. However, I generally used to avoid things that were really tight, vicious or unpleasant...
langcliffe
Well-known member
FTFAGOS - very well named (although with much potential).
PeteHall
Moderator
I once dug into an old mine in the Weardale, through some collapsed arching in the roof. It was silted nearly to the roof, and the open passage half full of water. The airspace was hung with roots for a considerable distance as the level ran along very shallow under the valley floor before heading into the hillside.
Being a mine and dug on a gentle uphill gradient, the conditions gradually improved from flat out to hands and knees crawling. After half an hour or so of this misery, the roof lifted into a small arched chamber, just big enough for the two of us to sit up in. Unfortunately in the ongoing passage, the roof had dropped again and a semi-flat-out crawl would have been required to continue and we decided to turn back. There really was nothing at all to redeem this place, it was just utterly miserable.
Ironically, 10 years later I was on the phone to an elderly friend who described a historic level that ought to link into an extensive and long inaccessible mine complex, after reviewing the historic mapping for the area, it became clear that this lost level was in fact the place I'd dug into and now I have to go back
Being a mine and dug on a gentle uphill gradient, the conditions gradually improved from flat out to hands and knees crawling. After half an hour or so of this misery, the roof lifted into a small arched chamber, just big enough for the two of us to sit up in. Unfortunately in the ongoing passage, the roof had dropped again and a semi-flat-out crawl would have been required to continue and we decided to turn back. There really was nothing at all to redeem this place, it was just utterly miserable.
Ironically, 10 years later I was on the phone to an elderly friend who described a historic level that ought to link into an extensive and long inaccessible mine complex, after reviewing the historic mapping for the area, it became clear that this lost level was in fact the place I'd dug into and now I have to go back
tomferry
Well-known member
Mine I am sorry is mine related :ras: as I am still new to the caving world but I do enjoy it and want to do much more !
Wigpool iron mine trying to find the high connection between sway and stream was hours and hours of belly crawling down every passage possible then reversing out as no room to turn around I absolutely loved it I find it a very interesting place !
Wigpool iron mine trying to find the high connection between sway and stream was hours and hours of belly crawling down every passage possible then reversing out as no room to turn around I absolutely loved it I find it a very interesting place !
Pitlamp
Well-known member
This may help answer your question - a short extract from the CDG's 1997 Peak District Sump Index Update, which (on page 34) makes some brief (none too serious) comments about the "Most Unpleasant Dive Sites" in the area:
"Another tricky one to decide; mere zero visibility and underwater obstacles just aren't good enough reasons for inclusion in this category. One possible contender might be Cowlow Pot at Doveholes; crawling over broken glass soaked in sewage near the entrance plus flooding to the roof takes some beating. However true masochists will most appreciate the piles of rotting carcases on the approach to the sump in Ribden Swallet No.2. There the icing on the cake comes in the form of the need to use breathing apparatus in the foul air before even getting into the water!"
"Another tricky one to decide; mere zero visibility and underwater obstacles just aren't good enough reasons for inclusion in this category. One possible contender might be Cowlow Pot at Doveholes; crawling over broken glass soaked in sewage near the entrance plus flooding to the roof takes some beating. However true masochists will most appreciate the piles of rotting carcases on the approach to the sump in Ribden Swallet No.2. There the icing on the cake comes in the form of the need to use breathing apparatus in the foul air before even getting into the water!"
Mrs Trellis
Well-known member
Ogof Hesp Alyn - hard work and nowt to see.
Re Cowlow Pot - didn't you have to pass under a broken bath outflow pipe?
Re Cowlow Pot - didn't you have to pass under a broken bath outflow pipe?
nearlywhite
Active member
Mrs Trellis said:
There's some gorgeous phreatic morphology in hesp alyn - big old sweeping curves, round passages and light coloured domes in the first part. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
The 2 kilometers of every shade of *expletive* does make you question the nature of your own existence though so you do have a point
The thick smelly mud of p4, combined with the fact you feel more like you're in a soil funnel than a cave would take my vote. I think we need more specifics on the horrible...
pwhole
Well-known member
Long Tor Grotto is a decent little mine in Matlock Bath, protected by a small lake of the most evil and disgusting black sewage-laden mud I have ever seen. It's a bit like the Wallows in Peak Cavern, but with cold black stinking lava instead of water. There was a dead rat floating on top of it on my only trip, and it smells of shit and diesel mostly, with hints of dirty laundry on top. Fishing waders are just long enough to enable you to get through without touching this horror, and they took about ten minutes of scrubbing in the river afterwards before I could safely put them back in my friend's car.
Amusingly, in ye olden days, they had a lemonade factory/shop above it (Whittaker's) which also operated the mine as a small showcave, and when we were digging out the Longcliffe shaft, in Castleton, we found a completely intact bottle, with stopper, buried about 10m down in the rubble - which didn't even begin until 18m down, so how this bottle survived is beyond miraculous. Mrs. Whittaker was clearly capable of serious stuff.
Anyway, I digress, as always
Amusingly, in ye olden days, they had a lemonade factory/shop above it (Whittaker's) which also operated the mine as a small showcave, and when we were digging out the Longcliffe shaft, in Castleton, we found a completely intact bottle, with stopper, buried about 10m down in the rubble - which didn't even begin until 18m down, so how this bottle survived is beyond miraculous. Mrs. Whittaker was clearly capable of serious stuff.
Anyway, I digress, as always
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Probably the nastiest place I've been was a mine project in the Tamar Valley. A chum and I were trying to find a way into Watson's mine (part of Devon Great Consols). We'd found a very interesting brick roofed cut and cover tunnel which formed a tail race for a pair of huge waterwheels. Part way up the tunnel a smaller cut and cover tunnel went off in the direction we wanted. We managed to dig our way in and push, flat out up the side tunnel. After an hour or so's frantic digging we found ourselves flat out, one ear in ochre, one ear against a very very dodgy brick roof with no obvious means of support. In a moment of clarity we took stock of our situation and backed out , never to return. A truly horrid place.
royfellows
Well-known member
ChrisJC said:
I love it!
And long may it stay that way, seeing whats happening to other places.
Rob
Well-known member
Critchlow Cave in Lathkill Dale, Derbyshire is pretty high up my list, which is probably why i've only ever been once. Consistently flat out crawling for hours which doesn't actually get you anywhere. Plus the entrance series is often inhabited by foxes, so there's little surprise gifts and pools left about for you. :yucky:
AR
Well-known member
pwhole said:
Ah, Long Tor Grotto - aka Pong Tor Grotto or Stinky Sough. Not only does the entrance passage have a wade through stinking black mud (several road drains wash into it so it's what you get when dead leaves, dogshit and diesel fester together in stagnant water for an extended period), there's a shaft in the floor at one point so if you miss the warning sign you could go in above your head. Doesn't bear thinking about...
The side passage from Cromford Sough to the millpond can be a bit grim on the dead things fromt, it's the main overspill for the pond so any duck or seagull that expires on the pond ends up getting washed into the passage and then getting caught on the gravel floor.
