Noticed a rope near the Maskill end of west chamber on the left side as you are looking towards Maskill, the rope goes up maybe 60ft and has a red reflector, the type you get on road signs located a few feet above it, and seems to be fixed to a single bolt and is of hauser type strands, not the kind of rope you would prussik or abseil from.

It follows a line of easy flakes which i climbed but then goes up some steep rock, and doesnt seem to be heading for anything in particular, looks like its been there for sometime but never noticed it before, anybody any ideas as to its history or what the objective was??

Is that a remnant of Ben Bentham's "Coconut Airways" (traverse in the roof of West Chamber)? See https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=5072.0

A few years ago a few of us climbed up into the Pilgrim's Way passage and turned left rather than right, which ultimately takes you over a drop into a passage opened up with a flame gun (is it called The Flue?) by John Beck and Ben Bentham - I think anyway - it was certainly John that told me about it. I didn't really believe it until I saw the scorch marks on the wall. It ends at a window halfway up the wall looking out into West Chamber - I could just see a line of bolts going up into darkness on what must be the first climbed pitch of Oxford Aven, up to 'Polytechnic Passage' (great name).

paul said:

Is that a remnant of Ben Bentham's "Coconut Airways" (traverse in the roof of West Chamber)? See https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=5072.0

Click to expand...

Thanks, this kind of answers it, i have heard of Bens exploration, reckon this area is long overdue for another ascent!

There's a reasonable survey of Maskhill and Oxlow showing the 1976 roof explorations on the PDCI page:

https://peakdistrictcaving.info/home/the-caves/castleton/oxlow-caverns