Wormy
New member
Meant to post this earlier but have been busy with other things, continueing my obsession (perversion) for remote, hard to find and usually wet holes in weardale and Teesdale I sallied forth to Little Gill near Garrigill for a bit of a poke about. After a dissapointing trip to priorsdale about a week before (squeeze at the back of Priorsdale is now about large enough to fit my arm through) I had decided that Little Gill hole and Rabbitskull cave might be interesting to have a look at.
Firstly Rabbitskull, after a deceptively welcoming entrance this narrows to a painfully tight tube squeeze with just about enough room to turn around at the far end. In addition it seems that every sickly animal from miles around has chosen the entrance chamber to crawl into as it breathes its last. An interesting exercise in seeing what I can push myself to squeeze through but I dont think I will be rushing back anytime soon.
Little Gill Hole was a lot more interesting, a delightful 20' climb down to a smallish ledge followed by another 20' downward drop after which it is then neccesary to rotate your whole body, until you are face first, to slide under the large rockface in front of you, a tightening rift then takes you forward with a small aven off to the right followed by a bit of an up/down. Interresting cave decorations consisting of an old leather boot and massive iron hinge. A lot more cave and fun than I was expecting.
All in all a good day, there are three or four other caves in the valley but nothing really worth talking about, also Little Gill level and a really nice waterfall cut into a very tight gorge which is well worth a look/climb if your into that kind of thing
PS. How does one go about inserting pictures in the posts?
Firstly Rabbitskull, after a deceptively welcoming entrance this narrows to a painfully tight tube squeeze with just about enough room to turn around at the far end. In addition it seems that every sickly animal from miles around has chosen the entrance chamber to crawl into as it breathes its last. An interesting exercise in seeing what I can push myself to squeeze through but I dont think I will be rushing back anytime soon.
Little Gill Hole was a lot more interesting, a delightful 20' climb down to a smallish ledge followed by another 20' downward drop after which it is then neccesary to rotate your whole body, until you are face first, to slide under the large rockface in front of you, a tightening rift then takes you forward with a small aven off to the right followed by a bit of an up/down. Interresting cave decorations consisting of an old leather boot and massive iron hinge. A lot more cave and fun than I was expecting.
All in all a good day, there are three or four other caves in the valley but nothing really worth talking about, also Little Gill level and a really nice waterfall cut into a very tight gorge which is well worth a look/climb if your into that kind of thing
PS. How does one go about inserting pictures in the posts?
