According to the Red Rose Journal 10, the connection from County Pot to Swindon Hole (and Corner Sink), which was forged in 2003, will 'more than likely .. choke up again when the rains return'. I'm curious to know if anyone has done it in the last ten years.

Today, with very low water levels, I went to check it out.

It was indeed choked with masses of big gritstone cobbles, but these turned out to be easy to move and after an hour of digging I was through into the rift. This was also almost blocked with a wall of precariously balanced boulders, which was soon demolished with an impressive rumble. I was then able to climb up the rift into the bottom of Swindon Hole, and after clearing a few more cobbles in the connecting crawl to Corner Sink, I completed the through trip.

For anyone who enjoys collectors pieces, now is the time to grab this one.

Interesting post Mr Mapper. I'm guessing it will need reasonable levels of rain (or even a flood event) to block it again?

Fingers crossed the weather stays dry for a bit and I can pay a visit, although, so many other things worthy of a visit when the weather is dry, damn choices!

dunc said:

I'm guessing it will need reasonable levels of rain (or even a flood event) to block it again.

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Yes, but I think you probably need very dry conditions to do it. It will quickly become impassable if much water is flowing.

Cave Mapper said:

dunc said:

I'm guessing it will need reasonable levels of rain (or even a flood event) to block it again.

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Yes, but I think you probably need very dry conditions to do it. It will quickly become impassable if much water is flowing.

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I see your point, a few places that could become interesting if water levels were normal..

Thanks for the heads up anyway, just completed a Swindon-Boundary trip. Very dry underground, Splash Inlet was not, I wouldn't even call it Dribble Inlet!!

The streamway in boundary was also completely dry, did not even get damp on the way out.

By the way Mr Mapper; did you climb up Red Chimney (and through what looked like a bloody tight bedding) or pass under it following the rift up a little clamber, through a slot and up the slope?

dunc said:

.. did you climb up Red Chimney (and through what looked like a bloody tight bedding)?

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I climbed up a rift, which was red at the top, but there wasn't a tight bedding, is that Red Chimney? I didn't know there was an alternative. The route I took matches the description in the Journal. Did you find a new alternative route?

The rift climb was slightly awkward, and high enough that you really wouldn't want to fall off, but not too bad as an up-climb. I imagine it would be very intimidating as a down-climb because it would be very hard to find the foot holds, a rope could be useful when doing the route in this direction. Did you manage to avoid this down-climb with your route?

It's good to hear that the route is getting some traffic, I think its a shame when these connections are forged but then not used.

Now we need someone to have a look at it in normal water levels, and report back whether it is passable. If it turns out that it is, then it will make fine sporting trip that could become much more popular. A pull-through down The Borehole with an exit by Swindon would be a good combination, as well as the Boundary Pot/Swindon combo that you did, which can be done with no vertical gear.

What I found interesting when We did The Borehole is that it does not feel like Easygill until you crawl through to the bottom of Spiral Staircase. You could say It felt like a Leck Fell or GG cave Ironically lol

There was no difficult climbs on our route, though there was some slippery boulders. The route we took followed the absent stream downwards until you drop down a couple of feet into a small chamber where it appears you can not go any further. However if you look almost completely back where you came from, you will notice a small hole between rocks. This also is not the way on as the passage/chamber is divided by a flake sitting down and ducking under the flake brings you to a much bigger hole to the left of the small hole. On the otherside is a slipperly climb down black boulders of about 2 meters and once down a short walk of about 3 meters brings you below an aven of about 4 meters high top of which is red. This is were I had a voice connection with Dunc in his bedding, we presume this is the red chiney.

I should add this was heading in so if heading out then you ignore the chiney, climb the boulders at the end instead, through a hole and turn sharp left to go up a small drop

Alex said:

... and once down a short walk of about 3 meters brings you below an aven of about 4 meters high top of which is red.

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I climbed straight up the 4m aven. I wasn't too sure about the stability of the boulders at the end of the rift so I didn't look for a route up there.

Maybe I was looking at the bedding the wrong way, it just appeared a little snug, and as Alex has already said, I could hear him so went via the lower route.

Cave Mapper said:

I climbed straight up the 4m aven. I wasn't too sure about the stability of the boulders at the end of the rift so I didn't look for a route up there.

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We clambered down those cobbles, slippy but nothing moved...
The aven you climbed is referred to as Red Chimney on the online RR-Ease Gill description for Swindon - forgot to look at the journal for any further info prior to our trip.

Now we need someone to have a look at it in normal water levels, and report back whether it is passable. If it turns out that it is, then it will make fine sporting trip that could become much more popular.

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Yes, would be interesting, I'd guess a couple of places might be 'moist' going. The only bit I'd previously done was part of Splash Inlet in average conditions and that was ok, just a little damp.

I was on the digging and surveying trips back in 2003 on both of these connections and can confirm that both Swindon and Corner Sinks are impassable in anything other than drought. In normal conditions there is a sump in the entrance series of Swindon and I would imagine the flat out bedding connection to Corner would be in a similar state.

The cobbles in the rift connecting Swindon to Splash Inlet area start accumulating as soon as water levels return to normal and will probably block the way completely when flood conditions return. It doesn't take long! During the digging trips (from the Splash Inlet side) the cobbles regularly changed/moved around. For many years there was no chance of realistically getting through, until one year something changed and the dig became feasible. A long period of drought coincided and made the through trips possible. I doubt anyone has been through since 2003... until now.

Andy

AndyW said:

I was on the digging and surveying trips back in 2003 on both of these connections and can confirm that both Swindon and Corner Sinks are impassable in anything other than drought. In normal conditions there is a sump in the entrance series of Swindon and I would imagine the flat out bedding connection to Corner would be in a similar state.

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I recall on my Swindon trip stopping in a dip, near/at a corner and commenting to Alex that this would make a fine spot for a sump or miserable duck, no idea if that's the spot you refer to Andy..

I wonder if the recent downpours have shifted anything already?  :-\

AndyW said:

I was on the digging and surveying trips back in 2003 on both of these connections and can confirm that both Swindon and Corner Sinks are impassable in anything other than drought. In normal conditions there is a sump in the entrance series of Swindon and I would imagine the flat out bedding connection to Corner would be in a similar state.

The cobbles in the rift connecting Swindon to Splash Inlet area start accumulating as soon as water levels return to normal and will probably block the way completely when flood conditions return. It doesn't take long! During the digging trips (from the Splash Inlet side) the cobbles regularly changed/moved around. For many years there was no chance of realistically getting through, until one year something changed and the dig became feasible. A long period of drought coincided and made the through trips possible. I doubt anyone has been through since 2003... until now.

Andy

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Interesting info, thanks for that Andy

AndyW said:

The cobbles in the rift connecting Swindon to Splash Inlet area start accumulating as soon as water levels return to normal and will probably block the way completely when flood conditions return. It doesn't take long! During the digging trips (from the Splash Inlet side) the cobbles regularly changed/moved around. For many years there was no chance of realistically getting through, until one year something changed and the dig became feasible. A long period of drought coincided and made the through trips possible. I doubt anyone has been through since 2003... until now.

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We had a furtle in Swindon Hole yesterday, and found the bedding just before the rope climb down the chimney into Trident Series had cobbled up as Andy forecast above. Digging from that side was impractical, so we went back out and went to have a look from the County Pot end.  It wasn't a great start to find that there the route at the top of the said chimney had become blocked with gritstone cobbles and gravel. This was cleared out, and we then had a look at the other side of the cobbled area. Some progress was made, but cold water beat us back.  There was probably between 5 and 10 metres distance between the points we got to.

I think I'll wait for warmer water before I return...