Access to Bone hole
- Thread starter Hughie
- Start date
cap n chris
Well-known member
MCG are certainly the people to approach for a trip. Tis a tad muddy and there's a handful of rocks down there, too.
whitelackington
New member
Hi Hughie, it is only The M.C.G. who hold the key for Bone Hole.
Most weekends there will be full members there to lend you the key.
Try ringing the cottage
01761462797
Most weekends there will be full members there to lend you the key.
Try ringing the cottage
01761462797
cap n chris
Well-known member
Les, I remember a little trip to Bone Hole (Entrance) MANY years ago with you and some others. Something to do with a "still no idea". Remember? - has enough time elapsed to tell the tale?
cap n chris
Well-known member
If you write your own version of it then it won't need me to PM you to censor out anything which my dim memory recollects!
Hughie said:
Write to the Hon. Sec., Mendip Caving Group, Nordrach Cottage, Charterhouse, Blagdon, Bristol, BS40 7XW
Or email secretary@m-c-g.org.uk
The cave is locked and access controlled by the MCG under a private licence from the National Trust who own the land. All parties must have a MCG leader.
Last changed 01/01/2005.
Copyright (C) CSCC 2005. For the latest information see www.cscc.org.uk.
cap n chris
Well-known member
After a flurry of PMs this evening, Les has OKd me to flesh (!) out the story I alluded to earlier. Once upon a time, in a land called Cheddar Gorge, after a CSCC meeting, some volunteers were required to assist MCG in transporting materials to Bone Hole in readiness for the entrance to be improved.
On this particular hot sunny Saturday afternoon a handful of us arrived in a convoy of cars, ahead of the others, and made our way up to find BH. It's easy if you know where to look but a right daymare otherwise.
Anyhoo, we slashed our way through the bramblyness, stingyness and hawthornishley and found the gash in the hillside. For those unfamiliar with Bone Hole, the clue is in the name. It's a 30-40ft deep rift in the hillside into which unsuspecting animals and ignorant people are prone to fall to their demise.
View of the side gate (unlocked) which stops livestock walking in... doesn't stop livestock falling in from the top, though!
View out. In the foreground is the old lid, topic of this story.
The "cave" has been excavated through rock n bones, including prehistoric archaeology and more bones, to a depth IIRC of over 100' and it still goes, but digging is exceptionally difficult and pretty dodgy, to say the least. Anyways.... There is a steep slope at the approach side which enables you to scramble down to the floor of fill where a locked gate protects the rocky realm within. On approaching we can smell something a bit rank. It gets more rank.
If you like bones, you'll love Bone Hole: "Does exactly what it says on the tin".
There, lying on top of the entrance that we have come to inspect, is a putrifying corpse of a bloated deer, a-buzz with flies. Just like something out of a horror movie. "Bollocks to that!", is the general theme of our mission, as it dawns on us that we'd need to handle this blobness before being able to check the padlock on the lid etc..
So, with scrapping our efforts foremost in our minds, Les comes up with a whizzo-wheeze: I've got some polyprop in my wagon, be right back.....
Five minutes later and a makeshift lasso is invented with Les leaping off the top of the 30-40ft rift onto a thick branch of an overhanging tree, threading the rope around and over it so that it runs straight down the shaft. The lump of festering flesh is then hooked around its leg and head and.... heave-ho, it begins its daylight journey, fur and skin sloughing off in the process! Yeugh!
Once up to the level of the tree, the end of the polyprop rope is lassooed around it with the judicious use of a long thin branch and then it is "deviated" onto terra firma and a hasty "1-2-3"-Lob into the undergrowth, out of harm's way. The polyprop is foulness incarnate and is put to one side before we all return back down to inspect the maggoty entrance once more.
No sooner do we get there and friendly voices can be heard approaching. "Ey-up, lads", and we are joined by Cookie and Tim F, "How's it going".
"Er, we've only just got here; no-one's had a chance to do anything yet. Have you got the key?".
"Yes, it's here".
"Ah, right;.... do you want to go and check out the lid?".
"Ok.... Blimey, it stinks down here!".
"Erm, that's probably just mulching earth and some rotting leaves". Sniggers and hasty glances soon turn to mild stomach-churns as Tim clears away dead deer juice from the entrance lid as we all watch, mute and aghast.
To this day I reckon it's a case of "Still No Eye Deer" for those who turned up late.
On this particular hot sunny Saturday afternoon a handful of us arrived in a convoy of cars, ahead of the others, and made our way up to find BH. It's easy if you know where to look but a right daymare otherwise.
Anyhoo, we slashed our way through the bramblyness, stingyness and hawthornishley and found the gash in the hillside. For those unfamiliar with Bone Hole, the clue is in the name. It's a 30-40ft deep rift in the hillside into which unsuspecting animals and ignorant people are prone to fall to their demise.
View of the side gate (unlocked) which stops livestock walking in... doesn't stop livestock falling in from the top, though!
View out. In the foreground is the old lid, topic of this story.
The "cave" has been excavated through rock n bones, including prehistoric archaeology and more bones, to a depth IIRC of over 100' and it still goes, but digging is exceptionally difficult and pretty dodgy, to say the least. Anyways.... There is a steep slope at the approach side which enables you to scramble down to the floor of fill where a locked gate protects the rocky realm within. On approaching we can smell something a bit rank. It gets more rank.
If you like bones, you'll love Bone Hole: "Does exactly what it says on the tin".
There, lying on top of the entrance that we have come to inspect, is a putrifying corpse of a bloated deer, a-buzz with flies. Just like something out of a horror movie. "Bollocks to that!", is the general theme of our mission, as it dawns on us that we'd need to handle this blobness before being able to check the padlock on the lid etc..
So, with scrapping our efforts foremost in our minds, Les comes up with a whizzo-wheeze: I've got some polyprop in my wagon, be right back.....
Five minutes later and a makeshift lasso is invented with Les leaping off the top of the 30-40ft rift onto a thick branch of an overhanging tree, threading the rope around and over it so that it runs straight down the shaft. The lump of festering flesh is then hooked around its leg and head and.... heave-ho, it begins its daylight journey, fur and skin sloughing off in the process! Yeugh!
Once up to the level of the tree, the end of the polyprop rope is lassooed around it with the judicious use of a long thin branch and then it is "deviated" onto terra firma and a hasty "1-2-3"-Lob into the undergrowth, out of harm's way. The polyprop is foulness incarnate and is put to one side before we all return back down to inspect the maggoty entrance once more.
No sooner do we get there and friendly voices can be heard approaching. "Ey-up, lads", and we are joined by Cookie and Tim F, "How's it going".
"Er, we've only just got here; no-one's had a chance to do anything yet. Have you got the key?".
"Yes, it's here".
"Ah, right;.... do you want to go and check out the lid?".
"Ok.... Blimey, it stinks down here!".
"Erm, that's probably just mulching earth and some rotting leaves". Sniggers and hasty glances soon turn to mild stomach-churns as Tim clears away dead deer juice from the entrance lid as we all watch, mute and aghast.
To this day I reckon it's a case of "Still No Eye Deer" for those who turned up late.
shotlighter
Active member
Venisons supposed to improve when well hung 
D
Dep
Guest
Excellent. Those are the sort of quick thinking skills that can never be taught.
busty_caver
New member
I would very much like an evening trip down there too - I have just spent the last year cataloguing all the Bone Hole Bones for Wells Museum. So far 3187 bones not including unnumbered or duplicated numbered ones.
There are 11 humans, 9 dogs plus bear, cow (two different adult sizes thereof) horse, dear, sheep. Some of the cow and sheep bones have signed of charring and cut marks. Inspite of what some people say about canabalism there is no evidence of this on the human bones!
i would love to get down there to take some pictures to go with my work. I plan to write somthing on it for descent/BB soon.
Hannah
BC
There are 11 humans, 9 dogs plus bear, cow (two different adult sizes thereof) horse, dear, sheep. Some of the cow and sheep bones have signed of charring and cut marks. Inspite of what some people say about canabalism there is no evidence of this on the human bones!
i would love to get down there to take some pictures to go with my work. I plan to write somthing on it for descent/BB soon.
Hannah
BC
