New survey on CaveMaps
We’re pleased to add the survey of
Draughting Hole / Missed Pot in Gretadale, courtesy of the combined exploration team from York CC, North York Moors CC, MSG and RRCPC:
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As this is an extremely high resolution and complex survey, we have made it available using DeepZoom too.
This is a particularly exciting system in our region, entered in 2021 following a winter of digging. They quickly found themselves exploring a classic Northern Dales maze cave, but one which offers an astonishing diversity in passage. The scale of the project quickly expanded as every junction led to four more, hence the number of teams putting their name to the survey and ongoing work; an amazing collaboration.
The system was later joined by Missed Pot, only 100m away across the fell.
Scargill Mine, blocked close to the adit entrance, underlies the system and throughout the exploration of Draughting Hole, the team were fully expecting to find a way down into the mine, as Northern Dales mines so commonly intercept maze caves. This wasn’t to be, and it ended up being an obscure passage in Missed Pot which finally gave access to the mine, which is shown (in part) on the survey.
Later work connected a separate section of maze cave further along the adit into Draughting Hole via a previously overlooked tight passage, allowing a through-trip to be completed.
Missed Pot delivered further surprises in the form of some astonishing formations in the northern reaches, as showcased on the front cover of Descent 302. Sizeable chambers with wall to wall stal and straws of the kind that would be considered magnificent in phreatic caves, let alone maze caves which are often devoid of such things.
You can hear more, including some recent dye tracing work, in a talk at Hidden Earth this year:
Exploration in the Draughting Hole Missed Pot systems continues apace with the last 12 months focusing on the elusive streamway(s) that flow at the base of the limestone beneath the dry hypogenic maze. As well as finding new lower levels to the cave system that carry the water, a dye tracing...
hidden.earth
Why not spend some time admiring the survey? This is a ‘work in progress’ version with some of the ‘trade routes’ marked in yellow and various annotations that you can probably work out (e.g. tt = too tight). There are also a shocking number of ?’s meaning open passage that nobody has yet been down, although the pace of expansion has now finally slowed to annual rather than monthly updates.
We expect lots more exciting news from this area. The ‘holy grail’ is the underground streamways formed by the various nearby sinks and which feed Eller Beck and Roughton Keld resurgences. Chris Curry gave an excellent talk on this ‘Cleasby Hill System’ at Hidden Earth last year, and this is a rapidly developing area to watch very closely as the team close in on this.
Anyone wishing to visit the system is advised to get in touch with York Caving Club (or anyone you know involved in the project - there are lots of them) so they can give the gamekeeper a heads-up text message (never a problem; this is done as a courtesy while teams are very regularly in the area with various digs) and offer some wise advice to ensure you don't get lost, as this is a VERY challenging system to navigate.
Would you like your survey adding to CaveMaps?
Use the ‘submit a survey’ function on our website; it’s dead easy!
Search and download free cave surveys for Northern England and Scotland. Thousands of cave surveys, free to download.
cavemaps.uk
Feel free to also send a little bit of back-story to
pr@cncc.org.uk and we’ll happily promote it for you too.
