I decided it was time that I got to know the area around Buxton / Stanley Moor and seeing as I'd managed to lay my hands on a new copy of Derbyshire Karst, I plotted the approximate spots on the map where the caves are and set off.
Having parked up at Poole's Cavern, I went up over the hill past Solomon's Temple at the top of the hill and dropped down the other side. The wind was blowing an absolutely gale and I could hardly keep the camera steady to take photos on top of the tower.
Dropping down the other side, I crossed the Grin Low Road that runs between Harpur Hill and Ladmanlow and turned left back towards Harpur Hill.
There had been a lot of rain in the previous few days and the bottom of the valley below, which should have been dry, had a fair-sized stream running down it to the point where the Karst book shows a rising. I'm guessing that normally the water rises just where the valley geology changes from grass to lots of fine rubble, down through which the stream has gouged its way.
Instead of clambering back up the bank and back onto the grass verge, I followed the stream down the field to a bridge where another stream joins from the south. I started following this stream and quickly realised that something very strange was going on with the water. At the bridge the water was vaguely cloudy, but as I got closer to Brook Bottom Springs it appeared that the water was laden with calcite deposits (?), which had coated every blade of grass. The stream was split and part of it was running the far side of a wall, where water was rising from the embankment in several places.
The deposits had coated the wall so thickly that it had blocked the holes in the wall, which meant that ground level on the far side of the wall was much higher and the water flowed out of gour pools, more often seen underground.
The walk then took me across fields and onto a disused railway line, which now serves as a road into the University of Sheffield Research Laboratories, perched up above the Brook Bottom Springs. Turning west onto the railway, I very shortly turned off again back into the fields at a point on the edge of a wood where there were some shakeholes. One, at least, was taking a small stream and appeared to be Anthony Hill Swallet.
Heading north again towards Stanley Moor proper I passed the Stanley Moor Reservoir on my left and came again to a large area of very uneven ground. The first large dip that I investigated proved to be Plunge Hole, with Axe Hole right next door.
Tempted by an opening large enough to get through easily with a solid floor three foot below, I removed my waterproof and reversed in.
The passage didn't go far, only six feet maybe, to a vertical drop down a rift to the stream. There was no way to get down this drop without a rope, so this is definitely somewhere to come at a later date with a rope.
The photo shows the entrance with my waterproof just outside. It wasn't really big enough to get into without getting pretty grubby, but that's never stopped me before!!
By the time I got back to the road I realised that it was starting to get dark and that I'd only got an hour or so to get home, so instead of continuing my walk through the outskirts of Buxton to pick up the rest of the holes, I had to head back to the Poole Cavern car park. Never mind, now I have a nice short(ish) walk for another day. Oh, and I spotted my first snowdrops of 2008, so spring must be on the way.
