Wormy
New member
Over the past couple of weekends I've been out and about between Teesdale and Brough, looking at a few bits and bobs listed in NC1 and some listed elsewhere, here's what happened...apologies for not having photographs of everything but there were certain points on this trip where I was that covered in crap it was impossible to use a camera.
Firstly, Cross pots and Swindale pots , a series of huge sinks dropping straight into the limestone, some of the entrances to these pots are vast (for a northern dales hole) at about 3 meters across:
The above is one of Swindale pots, the furthest away from the road, hence the lack of decomposing gas cookers and feral coils of barbed wire, unfortunately this one tightened to an impenetrable fissure approximately 3 to 4 meters down but its an easy free climb down and theres a large rift leadin south until that also peters out, interestingly its possible to trace the sinks backwards across the moor as they gradually drop further north. Cross pot did seem to be the most accessible but is a very awkward free climb down for about 23 meters and, nearly, the entire climb down is under the waterfall from the sink:
The line of shakeholes starts at Cross pots and terminates at Swindale pots, poking about in the shakes in between revealed further open pitches and things that will probably be pitches in the not too distant future, including this which was found when my foot broke through the turf and my left leg disappeared, it seems pretty damn deep (we had enlarged the hole by this point to look down into a sizable rift):
After mooching about Swindale pots on the first visit we decided that we were within walking distance of Windmore end cave so it seemed rude not to check it out, since NC1 the entrance has slightly collapsed and one of the chock stones has dropped in so there is now a very tight squeeze over that to drop into the cave (warning: if it wasn't for the fact that my companion that day decided to stay outside things could have gotten pretty nasty, its a very awkward thrutch to get into and straight onto a clay slope so no grip on the way out) However, a very impressive, enormous rift system with various cross rifts leading off, unfortunately I was unable to locate 'Clarty gap' to make it through into the parallel rift series :-\ (EDIT: it should also be noted that this cave has a plentiful supply of odd, salmon pink clay the consistency of custard, I had to walk a mile and a bit back to the car looking like Swamp thing would if he was dressed by Ben Sherman)
WE also spent a good few hours on the Teesdale side of the hill as well, my main target here was Far beck bridge cave, locating it was the first task, which turned out to be surprisingly easy its about 3 meters from the side of the road
The entrance is a tight drop and twist affair leading into (for once) walking size passages, the first 10 meters of so is a delightful clay bank which makes one squirm around like a seal until all of a sudden dropping into a nicely decorated passage way:
We pushed 'Round the bend with Richard' at the back of the cave but due to it being (very) wet weather out it appeared to be sumped. Annoyingly after going home and re-reading the information in MSG12 I'm also now regretting not looking further into the smaller streamway that cuts across the main passage not long after the entrance....all things to do another day.
Firstly, Cross pots and Swindale pots , a series of huge sinks dropping straight into the limestone, some of the entrances to these pots are vast (for a northern dales hole) at about 3 meters across:
The above is one of Swindale pots, the furthest away from the road, hence the lack of decomposing gas cookers and feral coils of barbed wire, unfortunately this one tightened to an impenetrable fissure approximately 3 to 4 meters down but its an easy free climb down and theres a large rift leadin south until that also peters out, interestingly its possible to trace the sinks backwards across the moor as they gradually drop further north. Cross pot did seem to be the most accessible but is a very awkward free climb down for about 23 meters and, nearly, the entire climb down is under the waterfall from the sink:
The line of shakeholes starts at Cross pots and terminates at Swindale pots, poking about in the shakes in between revealed further open pitches and things that will probably be pitches in the not too distant future, including this which was found when my foot broke through the turf and my left leg disappeared, it seems pretty damn deep (we had enlarged the hole by this point to look down into a sizable rift):
After mooching about Swindale pots on the first visit we decided that we were within walking distance of Windmore end cave so it seemed rude not to check it out, since NC1 the entrance has slightly collapsed and one of the chock stones has dropped in so there is now a very tight squeeze over that to drop into the cave (warning: if it wasn't for the fact that my companion that day decided to stay outside things could have gotten pretty nasty, its a very awkward thrutch to get into and straight onto a clay slope so no grip on the way out) However, a very impressive, enormous rift system with various cross rifts leading off, unfortunately I was unable to locate 'Clarty gap' to make it through into the parallel rift series :-\ (EDIT: it should also be noted that this cave has a plentiful supply of odd, salmon pink clay the consistency of custard, I had to walk a mile and a bit back to the car looking like Swamp thing would if he was dressed by Ben Sherman)
WE also spent a good few hours on the Teesdale side of the hill as well, my main target here was Far beck bridge cave, locating it was the first task, which turned out to be surprisingly easy its about 3 meters from the side of the road
The entrance is a tight drop and twist affair leading into (for once) walking size passages, the first 10 meters of so is a delightful clay bank which makes one squirm around like a seal until all of a sudden dropping into a nicely decorated passage way:
We pushed 'Round the bend with Richard' at the back of the cave but due to it being (very) wet weather out it appeared to be sumped. Annoyingly after going home and re-reading the information in MSG12 I'm also now regretting not looking further into the smaller streamway that cuts across the main passage not long after the entrance....all things to do another day.
