Duncan Price
Active member
[Since this trip was facilitated by this forum, I'd better write a trip report]
I happened to be staying in Weymouth for a long weekend while my better half took part in a karate course and so I grabbed the opportunity to arrange a spot of caving on Portland while I was in the area with tim.rose2 of this parish. The plan was to meet up by Blacknor Fort at midday on Sunday 20th May and go down "the best cave on Portland" Blacknor Hole. It turned out that the venue for karate was at the Osprey Sports Centre on Portland so, after dropping Naomi off, I did a quick recce of the area on Saturday morning before the pair of us spent an enjoyable afternoon freediving off of Chesil Cove in 20 m visibility (thanks to Izzy at Underwater Explorers for the recommendation).
Given the proximity of the dojo to the cave, I moved the rendezvous to 11 am but still arrived early and was initially mistaken for a marshal for a "Round Portland" race. I met Tim (who I already knew from the Wessex Cave Club) at the allotted time and place and nipped back to my car (which was in the climbers' pay & display car park - Tim had parked up in the housing estate which is closer and cheaper) to change. On my way back to the fort I was passed by the tail end runner from the race (obviously there to herd stragglers) who said "Going caving? Enjoy the crawling!" followed by a maniacal laugh!
Tim had been joined by Nick and Sam by this point as we walked around the cliff path to an obscure set of three bolts placed at the cliff edge. Tim rigged an abseil rope and disappeared from view in order to swing into the cave entrance partway down the cliff below. He had brought along a pair of walkie-talkies so that he could communicate with us and tell us when to drop the rope so that he could re-rig it from bolts at the cave entrance so that we could join him by prussiking up from the base of the cliff below. Needless to say the dialogue consisted of a lot of "Broadsword calling Danny Boy" and other frivolous radio-speak:
Once the rope up was placed Sam, Nick and I took the path (complete with metal staples in the rock to climb on) to where it hung down and Sam went up first:
I must say that the entrance is not at all apparent from below or above and, although it can be lead climbed from below to get into, the route up to it doesn't look very nice... In fact, Tim told me later that a climber had been hit and kitted by a falling rock there so time ago. It was an unusual experience to climb up into a cave and I didn't really enjoy the sea view as I faced away from the cliff during my ascent. I felt much more at home as I neared the top and was able to twist around to face the rock wall and its layers of chert. We took our SRT kit off lying in the entrance porch amid sea gull piss and sea gull poo. We were accompanied for the initial part of the trip by a disgruntled cormorant who we chased along the flat out crawl until it found a small opening to daylight to the left through which it could end its unwilling caving trip. Thankfully it didn't throw up over me - this is apparently their preferred means of defence in confined quarters.
After about 30 m of crawling we reached a place where we could all sit up (Piccadilly Circus):
From here there are a choice of routes but we carried straight on along a hands-and-knees crawl over a mud and rock floor to meet a large cross-rift which was crossed via a bold step:
(at this point the battery in my GoPro gave up whilst trying to shoot some film so I limited my efforts and ended up not taking any more photos).
We took the continuation of the crawl to another junction - the route ahead (Ariel Tunnel) being the way on to the connection with Sandy Hole and a through trip is possible (next time?). Our plan was to complete a round trip so we doubled back to the right into Queens Tunnel. At this point was encouraged climb up into Fairy Rift where there are a few formations - flowstone and some dried up gour pools. I would have liked to take some photos of the area but didn't have anyone to model for me. The formations are a sort of tan colour which contrasts with the darker brown of the clay floor and cream of the Portland stone over the black chert.
After this detour we went along Queen's Tunnel crossing several rifts until the route ahead (which goes to another entrance) started to close down at C&A rift (to the right). This was by far the largest part of the cave and it was possible to walk upright long the bottom of this until meeting the bottom of an awkward (which Nick made look easy) little thrutch up around a flake to pop out back at Piccadilly Circus.
From here it was back the way we'd come to the entrance and the 20 m abseil down to the lower path at the top of the scree slope. Tim was last down and rigged a doubled rope for his descent.
Many thanks to Tim, Sam & Nick for the trip. For those seeking something out of the ordinary then Blacknor Hole is not without interest and part of the attraction is getting in and out of the cave. Tim has put together a very nice website describing the caves of the area which can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/the-caves-of-portland/home
I happened to be staying in Weymouth for a long weekend while my better half took part in a karate course and so I grabbed the opportunity to arrange a spot of caving on Portland while I was in the area with tim.rose2 of this parish. The plan was to meet up by Blacknor Fort at midday on Sunday 20th May and go down "the best cave on Portland" Blacknor Hole. It turned out that the venue for karate was at the Osprey Sports Centre on Portland so, after dropping Naomi off, I did a quick recce of the area on Saturday morning before the pair of us spent an enjoyable afternoon freediving off of Chesil Cove in 20 m visibility (thanks to Izzy at Underwater Explorers for the recommendation).
Given the proximity of the dojo to the cave, I moved the rendezvous to 11 am but still arrived early and was initially mistaken for a marshal for a "Round Portland" race. I met Tim (who I already knew from the Wessex Cave Club) at the allotted time and place and nipped back to my car (which was in the climbers' pay & display car park - Tim had parked up in the housing estate which is closer and cheaper) to change. On my way back to the fort I was passed by the tail end runner from the race (obviously there to herd stragglers) who said "Going caving? Enjoy the crawling!" followed by a maniacal laugh!
Tim had been joined by Nick and Sam by this point as we walked around the cliff path to an obscure set of three bolts placed at the cliff edge. Tim rigged an abseil rope and disappeared from view in order to swing into the cave entrance partway down the cliff below. He had brought along a pair of walkie-talkies so that he could communicate with us and tell us when to drop the rope so that he could re-rig it from bolts at the cave entrance so that we could join him by prussiking up from the base of the cliff below. Needless to say the dialogue consisted of a lot of "Broadsword calling Danny Boy" and other frivolous radio-speak:
Once the rope up was placed Sam, Nick and I took the path (complete with metal staples in the rock to climb on) to where it hung down and Sam went up first:
I must say that the entrance is not at all apparent from below or above and, although it can be lead climbed from below to get into, the route up to it doesn't look very nice... In fact, Tim told me later that a climber had been hit and kitted by a falling rock there so time ago. It was an unusual experience to climb up into a cave and I didn't really enjoy the sea view as I faced away from the cliff during my ascent. I felt much more at home as I neared the top and was able to twist around to face the rock wall and its layers of chert. We took our SRT kit off lying in the entrance porch amid sea gull piss and sea gull poo. We were accompanied for the initial part of the trip by a disgruntled cormorant who we chased along the flat out crawl until it found a small opening to daylight to the left through which it could end its unwilling caving trip. Thankfully it didn't throw up over me - this is apparently their preferred means of defence in confined quarters.
After about 30 m of crawling we reached a place where we could all sit up (Piccadilly Circus):
From here there are a choice of routes but we carried straight on along a hands-and-knees crawl over a mud and rock floor to meet a large cross-rift which was crossed via a bold step:
(at this point the battery in my GoPro gave up whilst trying to shoot some film so I limited my efforts and ended up not taking any more photos).
We took the continuation of the crawl to another junction - the route ahead (Ariel Tunnel) being the way on to the connection with Sandy Hole and a through trip is possible (next time?). Our plan was to complete a round trip so we doubled back to the right into Queens Tunnel. At this point was encouraged climb up into Fairy Rift where there are a few formations - flowstone and some dried up gour pools. I would have liked to take some photos of the area but didn't have anyone to model for me. The formations are a sort of tan colour which contrasts with the darker brown of the clay floor and cream of the Portland stone over the black chert.
After this detour we went along Queen's Tunnel crossing several rifts until the route ahead (which goes to another entrance) started to close down at C&A rift (to the right). This was by far the largest part of the cave and it was possible to walk upright long the bottom of this until meeting the bottom of an awkward (which Nick made look easy) little thrutch up around a flake to pop out back at Piccadilly Circus.
From here it was back the way we'd come to the entrance and the 20 m abseil down to the lower path at the top of the scree slope. Tim was last down and rigged a doubled rope for his descent.
Many thanks to Tim, Sam & Nick for the trip. For those seeking something out of the ordinary then Blacknor Hole is not without interest and part of the attraction is getting in and out of the cave. Tim has put together a very nice website describing the caves of the area which can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/the-caves-of-portland/home
