Sheep rescues

S

s_allshorn

Active member
This one came out a drainage ditch in the valley before Hammer Pot I could hear it was stuck from the opposite side of the valley.

Whilst on the fell a few days later another lamb was pulled from the entrance of Echo Pot and this one you could hear from over the wall, thankfully it froze and waited rather than attempting the entrance pitch!

 

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A few years ago I went up to check out the bottom of Rosebay Pot on Ingleborough as a potential dig.  I was with two mates but only I had caving gear.  I got down the bottom of the three pitches to find a sheep alive but with a damaged horn.  It'd been there a while judging by the number of poos.  With a bit of frigging we hauled it up and off it ran into the sunset.  I checked out the rest of the cave and then stashed my gear so we could go for a walk and pick it up on the way back.  We hadn't gone far and as we approached Pillar Holes a baa'ing echoed up from below.  Back I went for the gear and found a sheep perched on a ledge 30m down.  It took some manoeuvring to capture it without it panicking and flying down the rest of the pitch.  It was eventually successfully hauled up and released.  I got the feeling we could be at this all afternoon.
 
I remember once exiting from Mistral after a very enjoyable through trip from Lancaster, to find a lamb blocking the way out. My mate was in front and shouted back, leaving me with visions of crawling through a festering corpse to get out, but after it butted him in the head, I knew I was ok  ;D

We managed to manhandle it out and it soon found a mummy sheep (not its own I don't think) to latch onto, slightly muddy and missing a horn, but otherwise none the worse for its adventure.
 

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Once found a live sheep in the passage before Splutter Crawl in Spectacle Pot. Took a bit of effort for two of us  to coax/manhandle it back to the entrance pitch where it was hauled out in a sling It just wandered off without a backward glance.

No pics as it was in the early eighties.

Just think what it would have been like if it had carked it in there and got washed into Splutter Crawl - not a pleasant prospect.
 
Some time ago Scud (on here) and I managed to rescue a sheep from Car Pot on Ingleborough. It put up a real fight but we eventually won and gave it its freedom. It was a bit of a battle though and I don't think I've ever been as coated in sheep muck as that day.
 
About 20 years ago I was walking across Scales Moor back to Horton. I spotted a ewe in one of those pot ponds, about 2 yards diameter, a yard deep and shear sides. After a bit of a struggle, I got the blighter out. But I was soaked through and liberally covered in peat, moss and other bits of the fell.
I regret to say that my heart has hardened with respect to sheep in problems of their own making.
 
This one was recovered from the very bottom of the entrance climbs of New Rift Pot. It had successfully entered the hole despite Natural Englands best efforts to ?Stock Proof? the entrance shaft. A bit like The Great Escape in Reverse.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/74732072@N08/48351507917/in/photostream/
 
This one was recovered from the very bottom of the entrance climbs of New Rift Pot. It had successfully entered the hole despite Natural Englands best efforts to ?Stock Proof? the entrance shaft. A bit like The Great Escape in Reverse.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/74732072@N08/48351507917/in/photostream/
Click to expand...

Well the fence only stops access from one side, it's quite easy to "drop in" round the back lol. Nice work though, I remember how difficult it is taking two heavy tackle bags out the entrance, never-mind a fully grown and moving sheep.

Surprisingly, I have yet to rescue a sheep from a cave even as part of UWFRA, but I have rescued a cow with the team, from Stans gill, gill. I dislocated my thumb on that one, not in the actual rescue but falling over on some grass collecting the boards afterwards, these boards we had used to manmoowver it.

I did rescue a sheep from a cattle grid, once, but that's not a cave.

I can't find the photos at the moment.

 
Found one quite firmly stuck in the entrance to Gillgarth. Got it out. It turned round and went straight back in.
 
We were regular visitors to Long Kin West when we were digging Pugwash passage the other year.  It is a notorious entrance shaft for sheep suicides as they do not survive the 90m fall well.  Simon had already prussiked out with a dead lamb to stop the awful smell ruining the ambience of the fine shaft but by the next weekend a full grown mother had landed very broken at the bottom.  Next trip it was hauled out in a builders bag.

The point of the story is that both were laid to rest in a nearby shakehole but both disappeared in a matter of days with all being left was a chewed up hoof.  This led to much speculation of 'the beast of Newby Moss' and concerns all round of being out on the moors at night.  What hungry beast demolishes a whole sheep that quick?
 
I think the beast of newby moss is the mighty maggot.  I walked up a hill called mellbreak in the lakes. There was a dead sheep covered in maggots.  Did the walk the next day to recover left behind binoculars that I had stupidly left.  The sheep was bones and the maggots had gone.
 
I had a rather strange sheep rescue experience last year (Twighlight zone music plays......)

I now live in darkest Cornwall but, back in the day I used to live in Yorkshire and spent a lot of time digging in the Dales.  Anyway; last year I was back in the Dales for Barry Andrew's funeral.  The day after the funeral Elaine Hill and I had planned to do Committee Pot up on Leck.  However when the time came neither of us could really be arsed to go caving so decided to go for a walk  on Leck instead.  Back in the late 90s the Airedale CC diggers (in the main Me, Alan Bolton, Perce Lister and Barry Andrew) did quite a lot of digging up on Leck.  One of our projects was a thing called Valentine Sink which was a timbered shaft we'd sunk in a shakehole in the dry valley below Gavel.

Elaine and I decided to take a stroll over the fell to look at Valentine.  When we found the shakehole it was full of nettles.  Hacking our way down into the shake hole found the shaft top undisturbed and  pretty much as I'd left it in the late 90s, covered in corrugated iron with a couple of scaff poles.  Given how secure the top of the shaft was we were more than a little surprised to find a sheep at the bottom of the shaft.  Fortunately there was an old lifting strop in the dig so we were able to manhandle the sheep out of the dig.  It then promptly legged it across the fell.

Reflecting afterwards it seemed remarkable for a number of reasons (a) I am  one of the only people who had any interest in the hole (b)  I was up in the Dales for the first time in a decade (c)  Elaine and I made a last minute decision not to go caving  and go for a walk instead.  Add to that the fact that the shaft top was totally secure and the odds against the sheep being found are mind boggling.
 
I think it must be the silly sheep season - we had to retrieve one from the bottom of the Notts Pot entrance shaft today. It had done the directissima, but without any obvious ill-effects.

Someone has de-skilled the climb just inside the entrance  :(.
 
The Beast of Newby Moss or at least it's offspring...

Saw around 5-10 cubs on Fountains Fell recently
 

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Yesterday's rescue from Thorn Gill, with thunder storms to come and unwillingness to get it's wet I didn't want the organic matter adding to the cave. And another lamb in distress...
 

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The above made me smile.
I was camped at Crickhowell ages ago and came back to a ransacked tent but the thieves had not stolen my rucksack or sleeping bag. While I was trying to figure out what they had stolen I saw that a large cardboard box of cornflakes was missing. With a puzzled look I stood up and my eyes were caught by one particular sheep in the local flock - which was ambling around with a large cornflake box on its head. Easily retrieved.
 
tamarmole said:
I had a rather strange sheep rescue experience last year (Twighlight zone music plays......)

I now live in darkest Cornwall but, back in the day I used to live in Yorkshire and spent a lot of time digging in the Dales.  Anyway; last year I was back in the Dales for Barry Andrew's funeral.  The day after the funeral Elaine Hill and I had planned to do Committee Pot up on Leck.  However when the time came neither of us could really be arsed to go caving so decided to go for a walk  on Leck instead.  Back in the late 90s the Airedale CC diggers (in the main Me, Alan Bolton, Perce Lister and Barry Andrew) did quite a lot of digging up on Leck.  One of our projects was a thing called Valentine Sink which was a timbered shaft we'd sunk in a shakehole in the dry valley below Gavel.

Elaine and I decided to take a stroll over the fell to look at Valentine.  When we found the shakehole it was full of nettles.  Hacking our way down into the shake hole found the shaft top undisturbed and  pretty much as I'd left it in the late 90s, covered in corrugated iron with a couple of scaff poles.  Given how secure the top of the shaft was we were more than a little surprised to find a sheep at the bottom of the shaft.  Fortunately there was an old lifting strop in the dig so we were able to manhandle the sheep out of the dig.  It then promptly legged it across the fell.

Reflecting afterwards it seemed remarkable for a number of reasons (a) I am  one of the only people who had any interest in the hole (b)  I was up in the Dales for the first time in a decade (c)  Elaine and I made a last minute decision not to go caving  and go for a walk instead.  Add to that the fact that the shaft top was totally secure and the odds against the sheep being found are mind boggling.
Click to expand...

FYI - in April 2015 four of us had a session on Valentines.  Our aim was to assess it as a dig and tidy it up around the top.  We did make the top more secure and hauled a load of crap out but sadly didn't think it worth pursuing further.  Interesting area though and a pleasant day was had by all except Boxhead Tony who didn't bring any spare clothes and so had to go to the pub with trousers caked in mud.

Lucky sheep.  Cheers
 
A friend who let's his sister graze her sheep on his land says he hates them. Always trying to find new ways to kill themselves.
 
Badlad said:
tamarmole said:
I had a rather strange sheep rescue experience last year (Twighlight zone music plays......)

I now live in darkest Cornwall but, back in the day I used to live in Yorkshire and spent a lot of time digging in the Dales.  Anyway; last year I was back in the Dales for Barry Andrew's funeral.  The day after the funeral Elaine Hill and I had planned to do Committee Pot up on Leck.  However when the time came neither of us could really be arsed to go caving so decided to go for a walk  on Leck instead.  Back in the late 90s the Airedale CC diggers (in the main Me, Alan Bolton, Perce Lister and Barry Andrew) did quite a lot of digging up on Leck.  One of our projects was a thing called Valentine Sink which was a timbered shaft we'd sunk in a shakehole in the dry valley below Gavel.

Elaine and I decided to take a stroll over the fell to look at Valentine.  When we found the shakehole it was full of nettles.  Hacking our way down into the shake hole found the shaft top undisturbed and  pretty much as I'd left it in the late 90s, covered in corrugated iron with a couple of scaff poles.  Given how secure the top of the shaft was we were more than a little surprised to find a sheep at the bottom of the shaft.  Fortunately there was an old lifting strop in the dig so we were able to manhandle the sheep out of the dig.  It then promptly legged it across the fell.

Reflecting afterwards it seemed remarkable for a number of reasons (a) I am  one of the only people who had any interest in the hole (b)  I was up in the Dales for the first time in a decade (c)  Elaine and I made a last minute decision not to go caving  and go for a walk instead.  Add to that the fact that the shaft top was totally secure and the odds against the sheep being found are mind boggling.
Click to expand...

FYI - in April 2015 four of us had a session on Valentines.  Our aim was to assess it as a dig and tidy it up around the top.  We did make the top more secure and hauled a load of crap out but sadly didn't think it worth pursuing further.  Interesting area though and a pleasant day was had by all except Boxhead Tony who didn't bring any spare clothes and so had to go to the pub with trousers caked in mud.

Lucky sheep.  Cheers
Click to expand...

That area around the dry valley intrigued us for a while, at the time we felt that that area was far from played out.  We also had a poke at Owlfinger (prior to Valentine) on the other side of the valley.  We pushed what turned out to a very squalid inlet until it closed down.  With hindsight I feel we went the wrong way,and I wonder if we should have continued down in the shaft rather than getting seduced by horizontal development.  If you are looking for a micro project I think it would be worth a days digging to try and clarify what is going on.
 
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