Grid ref: H11654582. The rocks from this shakehole are of Carn Limestone. The shakehole contains two sinks and is surrounded by cliffs on three sides. In wet weather, the sinks flood and water up to 2 m deep can build up.
|
|
Gavel Pot () consists of a steep-sided shakehole some deep, and in circumference - reputedly the largest shakehole in England. Scrambling down the eastern side, a ledge is reached where an pitch lands at the end of the traverse from Short Drop Cave. In the other direction a high canyon passage soon enters the bottom of the Gavel Pot shakehole, overlooked by rocky ramparts. In the corner a further pitch over a chockstone lands in a chamber where an excavated drop lands in the main passage.
|
|
Grid ref: H096465. The rocks of this sinkhole consist of Dartry Limestone, Knockmore Limestone and chert. The site has been designated a PASSI. Little Reyfad is at the base of a shakehole.
|
|
Grid ref: H096465. The rocks of this sinkhole consist of Dartry Limestone, Knockmore Limestone and chert. The site has been designated a PASSI. Little Reyfad is at the base of a shakehole.
|
|
Short Drop Cave and Gavel Pot are different entrances into the same cave system on Leck Fell, in Lancashire, England. The main top entrance, Short Drop Cave, is a small hole in a fenced off shakehole near the main stream sink; Gavel Pot, a window into the system, is a large fenced shakehole some deep requiring tackle to descend. There are two other smaller entrances into Short Drop Cave. At its base the system links via a sump with Lost Johns' Cave, and is part of the Three Counties System, an cave system which spans the borders of Cumbria, Lancashire, and North Yorkshire.
|
|
Grid ref: H11834513. Also known as Pollkerran, this sinkhole is designated a PASSI. The strata consist of Carn Limestone with mudstone and shale deposits. This formation is thought to have been a cave roof, which has collapsed, normally known as a shakehole.
|
|
Martel and Jameson also investigated Cradle Hole, a very large surface shakehole south-south-west of Marble Arch. A cave entrance in the north-eastern corner—Lower Cradle—was explored, reaching an underground river and passages with the same proportions as those in the Marble Arch Cave.
|
|
The entrance is in a cliff-lined fenced shakehole. An excavated deep shaft in the south-west corner of the shakehole leads into a chamber, where a further excavated shaft leads down for to an unstable boulder slope above a pitch. This drops into a high rift passage which passes under a high aven where It's a Cracker enters, and past an outlet passage down which the water flows. At the end of the rift, a small passage is the way through to the top of a pitch which drops into one of the two NPC Avens at the top end of Lost Johns' Cave (Boxhead Pot enters from the second aven).
|
|
Tim Allen took advantage of the new entrance to bolt up the big aven found in Lost Pot, followed by the aven discovered above, to a passage which terminated below a shakehole near Lost Pot. A shaft was sunk from the surface to open up It's a Cracker in 2012.
|
|
A small hole in a shakehole leads on to a broken shaft. At the base of this Strid Passage continues as a crawling / stooping passage for about before joining Stagger Passage from Langcliffe Pot. An obscure inlet about from the beginning leads into The Roads, an alternative and longer route to Hammerdale Dub.
|
|
The entrance to Lost Pot is currently sealed. It's a Cracker () is a second entrance situated in a shakehole about south-west of Lost Pot. A deep excavated shaft enters a small chamber with an inlet. Downstream, a few metres of awkward passage leads to the top of the deep Paparazzi Pitch.
|
|
The current entrance is through an opening in a small shakehole. This drops into a well-decorated rift passage, which was part of the former show cave. A levelled floor reaches a boulder choke which once had a flight of steps leading over it; this is now covered by a boulder collapse. The show cave terminated at a waterfall.
|
|
Disappointment Pot is one of the entrances to the Gaping Gill cave system, located in a steep grassy shakehole some south-east of Gaping Gill Main Shaft. Its mainly narrow stream passage descends a number of small shafts to enter the main system as a major inlet of Hensler's Master Cave. It lies within the designated Ingleborough Site of Special Scientific Interest.
|
|
The entrance is in a shakehole, and enters a small active stream passage. This soon enlarges to walking size before reaching a pitch with water entering from one side. Below a long passage (The Long Crawl) which has some flat-out wet sections, leads to a short second pitch. Below this a succession of three pitches rapidly descends to a spray-lashed chamber.
|
|
The entrance is below a small cliff in a shakehole. From the wide overhanging entrance, a short crawl leads onto an dry shaft. At the bottom, an excavated route leads into a narrow stream passage, with a narrow pitch a few metres downstream. Below this, about of narrow passage leads to the top of the third pitch, where the system enlarges dramatically.
|
|
The entrance is in a deep shakehole south of Lost Pot. A vertical pipe leads directly onto the top of a shaft which lands on an unstable boulder ledge. Below that a deep spacious shaft descends to the bottom of one of the two NPC Avens at the top end of Lost Johns' Cave (Lost Pot enters from the second aven).
|
|
A climb at the base of the grassy shakehole drops into a stream passage. Upstream, a climb enters a passage which after leads to the stream sink and the Motley Pot exit. Downstream, a narrow meandering streamway leads to a short flat-out section, followed by a duck, a short section with minimal airspace. The passage becomes larger as it approaches the first of its five short pitches.
|
|
The cave was discovered in August 1980 by members of the Reyfad Group, the cavers' collective responsible for exploring the Reyfad system. The entrance was made in a shakehole adjacent to the sink point of the Hune (pronounced "honey") stream, and close the border in County Cavan. This entrance became known as "Pollahune". The initial route was dug through a highly unstable area of glacial fill, making it extremely treacherous.
|
|
A climb down in the small shakehole soon leads to a tight pitch. At the bottom the passage passes beneath the aven where Wade's Entrance joins, and after a further it goes round a series of bends to where the last pitch of OBJ Hole enters. There is a chamber after a further where a small stream enters from an inlet passage. Downstream a succession of climbs and a pitch reach the main pitch of .
|
|
They concluded that these must have come from the surface having descended the high aven above. It gained its name as it allowed the Gaping Gill system to be entered even when the Main Shaft was in flood. Wade's Entrance was opened up by the Bradford Pothole Club in 1957. Eric Wade failing to get through the entrance squeeze in Flood Entrance, dug in an adjacent shakehole and got through after getting a voice connection.
|
|
The Boxhead Pot shafts were originally climbed from below in the late 1980s by Mick Nunwick. In the autumn of 1994, Northern Cave Club cavers found an open and unstable hole in a shakehole, which they descended to land at the bottom of the NPC Avens in Lost Johns'. The cave was named after Alan Box, a club member who had died in a Spanish cave the previous year. The entrance was stabilised in 1995.
|
|
Rift Entrance () is a currently blocked entrance just over the wall from the main sink. A climb down enters a rift chamber, where a passage enters the First Oxbow in Short Drop Cave. Coal Hole Entrance () is located in a small shakehole SE of Rumbling Hole. A long crawl eventually reaches a bedding chamber with a coal seam exposed in the walls where an excavated squeeze drops into Canals Inlet in Short Drop Cave.
|
|
The shallow pool of Pwll Gwy- rhoc sits in a broad depression towards the northern edge of the plateau whilst a smaller pool frequently occupies a large shakehole a few hundred metres to its west. The hill forms an impressive northern scarp overlooking the Usk valley and commonly referred to as the Llangattock Escarpment. Its southern margins are more subdued. Its eastern end is defined by the drops into the Clydach Gorge.
|
|
Eden Sike Cave is a small cave in Mallerstang in the Eden valley in Cumbria, England north of Hell Gill. The entrance is north west of an obvious resurgence in a small shakehole. This drops into a passage where a wet crawl leads downstream towards the resurgence, and a roomier passage going upstream. The upstream passage soon deteriorates into more awkward going which eventually passes a small but awkward climb into an inlet passage up to the right.
|
|
The entrance is in a shakehole, and enters a small active stream passage. This soon enlarges to walking size before plunging down a series of short drops called Five Step Pot. Below here the water drops down a deep hole called The Pit, but the voie normale traverses over the hole into a dry series. The passages drops down a couple of climbs and a further two short pitches before arriving at the deep Storm Pot, where the stream reappears in the roof.
|
|
Ireby Fell Cavern is a cave system on Ireby Fell, Lancashire, England, near the border with North Yorkshire. It is a segment of the Three Counties System, linking the Rift Pot system to the south with Notts Pot to the north. This popular cave starts with a pitch series that eventually opens out into a very large series of dry sandy passages. The entrance is a vertical concrete pipe at the bottom of a shakehole that was last shored up in 2006.
|
|
The old show cave entrance is in a plantation of trees from the road, at the base of a small cliff, at the bottom of a small gorge. A flight of three steps descend from the entrance archway into the Main Chamber, long, and wide. A stream flows across the floor, and disappears into some low passages to the left. Also on the left, a low passage can be followed for a few metres to the Back Door entrance in a shakehole.
|
|
The entrance lies within a shakehole where a small hole between blocks leads to a ledge at the top of a shaft. This lands in a chamber with a narrow rift passage leading off which degenerates into the Craven Crawl, of low, wet passage. At a junction with an inlet, the passage enlarges into Stagger Passage, of walking and stooping. At the start of a deep canal it passes a passage on the left which is the main way to the alternative entrance of Oddmire Pot.
|
|
Sidcot Swallet is a cave near Burrington Combe, in the Carboniferous Limestone of the Mendip Hills, in Somerset, England. It was named after the Sidcot School Speleological Society who explored it in 1925. A swallet, also known as a sinkhole, sink, shakehole, swallow hole or doline, is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water flowing beneath. After Goatchurch Cavern, Sidcot Swallet is probably the most popular cave on Mendip for novice parties.
|
|
Eventually the river abandoned the meander, creating a dry valley running from the cave sink at Ayiew Maco to the resurgence at Holuca. Sof Omar village is situated close to Ayiew Maco in the dry valley. Infill into the valley makes it rise to a high point of about 45 m above the Web, before it drops away to a pebble beach downstream of Holuca. The other dominant feature is a large shakehole wide and deep and found on the basalt plateau directly above the cave.
|
|
The cave was first entered in 1949 by members of the British Speleological Association, who moved a few boulders at the bottom of the shakehole. The original route to the Big Pitch was through the bedding below the entrance pitch, down the pitch, and through Whitehall. Bob Leakey then discovered the route from Bridge Hall to Whitehall, and Ken Horrocks discovered the passage named after him which is now the voie normale. Wild Cat Rift was explored by members of the Northern Cave Club from below in 1969.
|
|
A short wriggle between the shakehole wall and a large boulder leads into the roomy passage. After this abruptly drops to the floor of the Main Chamber. Although a direct descent is possible, a considerable waterfall enters from Spout Tunnel below the lip, so the modern route, known as Dihedral, deviates away from this to land on a ledge some down. The route then leaves the shaft to drop down the rift above the Main Chamber, before emerging through the roof and dropping the final to the floor.
|
|
Aveline's Hole A swallet, also known as a sinkhole, sink, shakehole, swallow hole or doline, is a natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water flowing beneath the water-table at considerable depth. Sidcot Swallet is named after the Sidcot School Speleological Society who explored it in 1925. The earliest scientifically dated cemetery in Great Britain was found at Aveline's Hole. The human bone fragments it contained, from about 21 different individuals, are thought to be between roughly 10,200 and 10,400 years old.
|
|
The prominent depression of Ireby Fell was marked as "The Cavern" on the first (1847) issue of the Ordnance Survey maps, though the early explorers could see little justification for the name. Various digs were undertaken from 1932 onwards until in 1949 a small scar on the NW side of the shakehole gave access to a passage that reached the first pitch. Much of the cave was explored and surveyed down to the sump at the end of Duke Street. The cave entrance then became blocked in 1953 until it was reopened in 1963.
|
|
The cave was dug into on 10 March 1949, and explored by the Northern Pennine Club during the following Easter weekend. The entrance became blocked in the early 1980s, and in 1984 it was re-opened by the Bradford Pothole Club who installed the current galvanised tubing through the unstable boulder ruckle in the shakehole. In November 1979 the cave became the centre of a major rescue when Jeremy Peterson went missing on a solo pull-through trip. He was found alive and well after 57 hours, having gone off route and fallen down the Mud Pot pitch.
|
|
The first recorded exploration of the Gavel Pot - Short Drop system was in 1885, when Messrs. W. Eckroyd, Geoffrey and Cuthbert Hastings descended one of the entrances in the Gavel Pot shakehole, and explored Short Drop Cave for a considerable distance upstream, using a ladder constructed out of iron piping and rope to scale the high waterfall. They referred to the cave as "Low Dowk Cave", seemingly under the impression it was Low Douk Cave near Marble Steps Pot. It was referred to as "Gavel-pot" in 1842 by Jonathan Otley, and in 1881 Balderstone referred to it as "Gavel or Navel Pot".
|
|
Big Meanie (also called Hawthorn Pot and Nostril Pot) is another entrance into the system situated about due west of Death's Head Hole, in a shakehole by a kink in the wall. A tight rift leads directly onto a pitch which lands in a tall fissure passage. To the west, the passage terminates in a large chamber and a mud choke. To the east the passage divides, with one branch heading towards Eyeholes before becoming too tight, and the other passing through a dug-out constriction into a muddy crawl that finishes on a ledge above the floor of the Death's Head Main Chamber, opposite East Passage.
|
|
Lost Pot was first mentioned by name in 1922, where it is implied that it was named by S.W. Cutriss. There were a number of attempts by various clubs since 1968 to locate a cave at the bottom of the shakehole, but it was not until the beginning of 1982 that a concerted effort by members of the Northern Pennine Club succeeded in excavating a shaft through the boulders into the passages below. The boulder slope found at the head of the first big pitch was very unstable, and it was necessary to put in a considerable amount of effort into stabilising it before a descent could be made. The cave was eventually bottomed on 18 February.
|
|
Drawing by É. A. Martel, depicting the first exploration of Marble Arch Caves in 1895. The Marble Arch, Cladagh River resurgence and three large dolines on the plateau above the end of Cladagh Glen were all known well before underground exploration began; in fact the arch was a popular tourist attraction in the 19th century. As early as the 1730s, the Reverend William Henry described these features, as well as the sinks of the Owenbrean, Aghinrawn and Sruh Croppa rivers which he correctly surmised to be feeders of the system. cited in Without venturing far into the cave, Henry descended to the base of one of the dolines above the resurgence: The stream passages at the base of each shakehole were first explored by Édouard-Alfred Martel and Dublin naturalist Lyster Jameson in 1895.
|
|