Penyghent Pot: Entrance Unstable

nobrotson

Active member
Sam Allshorn and myself had a trip into Penyghent Pot today. On exiting we had a go at stabilising a large boulder in the entrance that had a large space beneath it by building up a wall of rock beneath. This seemed to have the effect of destabilising the fill behind the large boulder and Sam noticed it begin to move. After getting above the boulder we both tried jumping on it and it moved a few inches down.  You may wish to take this into account if planning a trip in the near future. There has been some stabilising work done on the entrance recently, with a couple of boulders being capped/snappered to remove some edges and some rebar has been used to pin several boulders together vertically (a method I hadn't seen before which seems quite clever). I believe the NPC are working on the entrance currently. I am not sure exactly who to speak to ffrom the NPC regarding this, but Sam is the Penyghent access officer so he may be the best port of call.
 

s_allshorn

Active member
Work is being undertaken to make this safer. Please don't go at the moment as this work isn't finished yet and the shaft may be more unstable. We let you know when the work is finished.
 

Cavematt

Well-known member
Work to re-stabilise the entrance to Penyghent Pot was completed yesterday.

All of the old scaffolding has been removed (some of it was in a very bad state and had to be cut out) and new scaffolding has been installed. Larger blocks further down the shaft that had become mobile have been stabilised with lintels as best as possible.

A new mesh lid has been fitted to make it sheep-proof.

Anyone visiting this cave is strongly advised to pay particular attention and to check for loose rocks on the descent; despite all our best efforts, there may still be some loose debris, or more rocks may become loose as the new entrance and scaffold beds itself in. You must make your own judgement as to whether it is safe and appropriate to descend. Please report any observations to the CNCC and check for warnings of such observations on the CNCC website before any trips:

https://cncc.org.uk/cave/penyghent-pot

Many thanks to those who have put in work (in some pretty rotten weather at times), including volunteers from ULSA, NPC, BPC and the CNCC, the Stories in Stone project, and thanks to Mike Cooper for funding this from sales of Not for the Faint Hearted.

A full report with photographs of the work being done will appear on the CNCC website in due course and in a future edition of our newsletter.
 
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