Wormy
New member
As most of my pottering about is done in the wilds of Weardale I thought it was about time that I had a look at the generally neglected Magnesian limestone of coastal County Durham. I mentioned this to a few people and one of them told me an interesting story about finding a cave near Hesleden, called Hairy mans hole, whilst scrub clearing on a nature reserve. I checked the northern cave guides and could find no reference of it, I asked a few friends if they had heard anything regarding this oddly named cave but nothing was forthcoming apart from one picture online and a brief mention of it in a Durham wildlife trust pamphlet about the reserve. I eventually got in touch with one of the Moldywarps regarding it and he also came back with a blank although he did find the 1840s OS map for the area which shows a 'Dorcas cave' on the same map ref, incidentally I had checked the 1890s map where it is listed as Hairy mans hole.
This further fueled my curiosity so about a week ago myself and two sturdy companions found ourselves standing in a small car park in Hesleden, shivering in the cold and with anticipation of entering Hairy mans hole (get used to the double entendres, theres probably going to be a lot more).
Firstly Hesleden Dene is a very steep sided valley, incised into the Mag limestone by the melt waters of the last ice age, crossing the stream at this time of year is difficult, but not entirely impossible so cold and soggy footed we started the 8 meter(ish) climb up the cliff face to the hole.
The first entrance with rock arch to the left of the picture.
After climbing up it turned out to be (after a promising looking entrance) 5meters 40cm deep although in the alcove at the back are what appear to be two slip rifts running off east and west which can be followed for about 2 meters before becoming too tight.
gazing out of Hairy mans hole
By traversing east along a narrow ledge we found a very pretty rock arch with a small rock shelter behind it but that appeared to be everything that was there. Further investigation in the cave appears to show that at some point in the past a shelf has been carved into one side, a possble flattened out bed area at the back and a small niche in the other wall. This may have some bearing on the information in the Durham wildlife trust pamphlet that speculated the cave was named Hairy mans hole after local Jesuit priests hid there many years ago.
So after, entering and thoroughly exploring ever nook and cranny of Hairy mans hole we decided to bugger off elsewhere to look at something out of northern caves.
However after deciding to head downstream to cross the river on a fallen tree I was more than pleasantly surprised to see this:
A second Hairy mans hole, just waiting to be entered, or possibly a Dorcas cave (its just not as funny) This looked a lot more promising. A low and fairly wide entrance chamber with a small aven directly above led off in a south easterly tube which terminated in an extremely smelly otters/minks nest. At the point where the nest is a small downwards rift can be seen (which could possibly be dug into) continueing south east and the tube opens up slightly into a rift heading straight up with masses of very pretty deep blue stal on the walls (the photo does not do the colour justice).
Still not a vast cavern by any standards but respectable for a Durham mag limestone cave at 12meters 80cm.
The next day one of the afor -mentioned sturdy companions found a footnote in a historical text on County Durham which reads: : An aperture was discovered, June, 1849, in the side of the hill in
Hesleden Dene, which was found to be the entrance to a large cave,
evidently long shut up. On further search, five human skeletons were
found, one of which was of large size. When discovered, the bones
seemed nearly perfect; but on being brought to the light, they
crumbled away. History and tradition are silent relative to this cave
and its contents.
Whether this is entirely apocryphal or there is a further, large, bone riddled cave to be found in Hesleden dene remains something to find out another day.
After yomping our way back up the hill to the car we decided to go and have a look into Gin cave at Blackhall rocks on the coast. Gin cave is a whopping sea cave although small tubes leading back into the cliffs do appear to show some phreatic action but come to tight after about 8 or 9 meters (I left the big tape in the car), so here it is:
Hope you enjoyed
This further fueled my curiosity so about a week ago myself and two sturdy companions found ourselves standing in a small car park in Hesleden, shivering in the cold and with anticipation of entering Hairy mans hole (get used to the double entendres, theres probably going to be a lot more).
Firstly Hesleden Dene is a very steep sided valley, incised into the Mag limestone by the melt waters of the last ice age, crossing the stream at this time of year is difficult, but not entirely impossible so cold and soggy footed we started the 8 meter(ish) climb up the cliff face to the hole.
The first entrance with rock arch to the left of the picture.
After climbing up it turned out to be (after a promising looking entrance) 5meters 40cm deep although in the alcove at the back are what appear to be two slip rifts running off east and west which can be followed for about 2 meters before becoming too tight.
gazing out of Hairy mans hole
By traversing east along a narrow ledge we found a very pretty rock arch with a small rock shelter behind it but that appeared to be everything that was there. Further investigation in the cave appears to show that at some point in the past a shelf has been carved into one side, a possble flattened out bed area at the back and a small niche in the other wall. This may have some bearing on the information in the Durham wildlife trust pamphlet that speculated the cave was named Hairy mans hole after local Jesuit priests hid there many years ago.
So after, entering and thoroughly exploring ever nook and cranny of Hairy mans hole we decided to bugger off elsewhere to look at something out of northern caves.
However after deciding to head downstream to cross the river on a fallen tree I was more than pleasantly surprised to see this:
A second Hairy mans hole, just waiting to be entered, or possibly a Dorcas cave (its just not as funny) This looked a lot more promising. A low and fairly wide entrance chamber with a small aven directly above led off in a south easterly tube which terminated in an extremely smelly otters/minks nest. At the point where the nest is a small downwards rift can be seen (which could possibly be dug into) continueing south east and the tube opens up slightly into a rift heading straight up with masses of very pretty deep blue stal on the walls (the photo does not do the colour justice).
Still not a vast cavern by any standards but respectable for a Durham mag limestone cave at 12meters 80cm.
The next day one of the afor -mentioned sturdy companions found a footnote in a historical text on County Durham which reads: : An aperture was discovered, June, 1849, in the side of the hill in
Hesleden Dene, which was found to be the entrance to a large cave,
evidently long shut up. On further search, five human skeletons were
found, one of which was of large size. When discovered, the bones
seemed nearly perfect; but on being brought to the light, they
crumbled away. History and tradition are silent relative to this cave
and its contents.
Whether this is entirely apocryphal or there is a further, large, bone riddled cave to be found in Hesleden dene remains something to find out another day.
After yomping our way back up the hill to the car we decided to go and have a look into Gin cave at Blackhall rocks on the coast. Gin cave is a whopping sea cave although small tubes leading back into the cliffs do appear to show some phreatic action but come to tight after about 8 or 9 meters (I left the big tape in the car), so here it is:
Hope you enjoyed
