Really following from a long discussion last year, over the 120-day "life"...
SANDY HOLE
Sharbutt's Rift entrance - the narrow rift in the corner of the quarry. There was a small earth slide from the cliff-top slope above its entrance a month or so ago. I don't know if the cave has been affected but it would be as well to verify exit from the bottom of the rift into Sandy Hole itself before attempting a free-slither down it!
The far end of Ammonite Passage has not been touched for quite some years. Contact Mike Read (Chelsea Speleo Soc but Weymouth resident) for info - he was one of those who found the extensions in 1986.
Where does Sandy Hole go? Almost certainly not Culverwell spring. That is far too high in the Portland Formation and probably drains the uppermost beds. However there are intriguing little phreatic tubes in an old quarry face on the East side of Portland Bill. If anything, Ammonite Passage goes below sea-level... One for the CDG?
GROVE CLIFF CAVES.
The blockage in the Allotment dig / Guano Rift link has been cleared, by Mike Read and co. The debris came from entrenching work for a new street-lamp cables, grazing the cave roof. The railway track mentioned in those earlier posts was my handiwork in the 1980s when we (Phil Strong, Martin Crocker & I) dug out that passage, found the way through into Guano Rift and commenced clearing the rift downwards in the hope of finding the continuation of Coffin Hole. Later inspection of the latter suggests a forlorn hope but it kept us quiet on Wednesday nights for a couple of years. For them as know about these things. the track gauge is 7-1/4"...
INMOSTHAY
Everything known there has been destroyed although I photographed a choked, very elegant phreatic tube exposed in a new quarry face for a time. I've not tried asking the quarry comapny for access as I suspect it would be so hedged with Elfin Safetee ifs-&-buts we'd get nowhere. Even though the quarries are not fenced at all!
FOSSIL CAVE
The stone firm gated this some years ago but persons unknown (almost certainly local children, not cavers) removed the lock. It was certainly open last year when Kev & Charlotte Hilton & I visited it to collect stal samples, from broken-off formations I hasten to add, for Phil Murphy's analysis project.
SANDY HOLE
Sharbutt's Rift entrance - the narrow rift in the corner of the quarry. There was a small earth slide from the cliff-top slope above its entrance a month or so ago. I don't know if the cave has been affected but it would be as well to verify exit from the bottom of the rift into Sandy Hole itself before attempting a free-slither down it!
The far end of Ammonite Passage has not been touched for quite some years. Contact Mike Read (Chelsea Speleo Soc but Weymouth resident) for info - he was one of those who found the extensions in 1986.
Where does Sandy Hole go? Almost certainly not Culverwell spring. That is far too high in the Portland Formation and probably drains the uppermost beds. However there are intriguing little phreatic tubes in an old quarry face on the East side of Portland Bill. If anything, Ammonite Passage goes below sea-level... One for the CDG?
GROVE CLIFF CAVES.
The blockage in the Allotment dig / Guano Rift link has been cleared, by Mike Read and co. The debris came from entrenching work for a new street-lamp cables, grazing the cave roof. The railway track mentioned in those earlier posts was my handiwork in the 1980s when we (Phil Strong, Martin Crocker & I) dug out that passage, found the way through into Guano Rift and commenced clearing the rift downwards in the hope of finding the continuation of Coffin Hole. Later inspection of the latter suggests a forlorn hope but it kept us quiet on Wednesday nights for a couple of years. For them as know about these things. the track gauge is 7-1/4"...
INMOSTHAY
Everything known there has been destroyed although I photographed a choked, very elegant phreatic tube exposed in a new quarry face for a time. I've not tried asking the quarry comapny for access as I suspect it would be so hedged with Elfin Safetee ifs-&-buts we'd get nowhere. Even though the quarries are not fenced at all!
FOSSIL CAVE
The stone firm gated this some years ago but persons unknown (almost certainly local children, not cavers) removed the lock. It was certainly open last year when Kev & Charlotte Hilton & I visited it to collect stal samples, from broken-off formations I hasten to add, for Phil Murphy's analysis project.
