August Bank Holiday - Bull Pot of the Witches - 27 Aug 12

We went to sign in at the board that used to be hung on the end of the building, but it had gone and we realised that they have a new extension for their changing room - very nice!  One of the major bonuses of Bull Pot of the Witches is that it’s only about a hundred yards from the back of Bull Pot Farm, which is unusual in Yorkshire (particularly in that area!).  Keith rigged around the side of the open pot and off the tree to a rebelay and the bottom.

Keith on the rebelay

I followed, by which time Keith had found at least four routes off the main pot, so we waited for Paul and he directed us back under the wall that we’d dropped, along a short traverse to a sloping take off into a rift with two deviations.

Paul about head to down the rift

It looked straightforward enough, but was interestingly off-balance!  The guide says that most of the short pitches in BPotW are free-climbable - I could see that they might be, but maybe for someone braver than me.  Down another short drop we then came to a chamber with a lot of boulders jammed in the roof.  Keith commented on it and I said that it reminded me of Aygill Caverns, which isn’t a million miles away.  We then arrived at the top of a climb down that was fine once you got past the first bit, but looked fairly horrible.  The pitch beyond that was low and awkward to get onto, but there were plenty of ledges and I was confident that it would be straightforward to get back up.  Paul decided to wait here as his collar bone was aching from being hit by a small stone that came rattling down the shaft in Jingling Pot.  Keith and I continued to another small pitch, followed by a 6ft drop into what looked like a sump pool.  Keith explored and had a look around while I came down the rope, but not having been in there before and with water levels quite high, it was difficult to tell if there was a way on or not.  We started along a water-worn dry shelf on the right, but with SRT kit on, it wasn’t much fun, so we turned back.

Back up the 6ft drop, Keith discovered the climb up that we’d been looking for into the Long Gallery.  I had a bit of a problem on that, not having much upper body strength, but I eventually flopped into the gallery on my face.  Effective, but not very elegant!  We explored along this good-sized hading (sloping) rift and came to a large stream, presumably the same one we’d seen at the bottom of the 6ft drop.  Again, as water levels were high and we were conscious of Paul waiting, we decided to turn back.  There were a couple of nice, but muddy curtains along the gallery.  I imagine that water levels get very high down there at times!  Heading back up I had an interesting time working out how to get off the top of the pitch where Paul was waiting.  Once I’d sussed it out it was straightforward enough.  I think I must have been getting tired by that time because I made really hard work of the pitch with the two deviations and got really cross with myself.  While the others came up, I headed out into the open pot and took my time up the last two short pitches.  I then went further around the top of the pot and followed a small path that takes an upper route into the cave and took some photos of Paul and Keith emerging.  

Keith reaching the tree

By this time it was raining quite heavily and I found a very soggy honey bee, which I tucked away under an overhang on some moss.  We were only underground for barely a couple of hours, but again another trip that none of us had done before and we agreed that it was worth another trip at a later date.  Having since had a look at a survey, it’s obvious just how much of the cave that we actually missed completely - no excuse not to go back then!!!

August Bank Holiday - Jingling Pot - 26 Aug 12

Walked up to Valley Entrance and went in.  It’s a surprisingly long way to the pitch head, much further than you think.  Keith rigged and Paul went down for a look.  I meanwhile headed slowly out because I wanted to take my time - my stomach was full of veggie breakfast and it didn't like being compressed as I bent over.  Collected my SRT kit and the two tackle bags and sat in the draught to keep the midges off.  Keith appeared, saying that the water levels were quite high, so Paul had suggested we go to Jingling Pot instead.  None of us had done it before, so it seemed like a good plan.  We walked along the road, chatted to three guys who were headed for Bull Pot and went up by the Bull Pot path.  We were all hot and sweaty by the time we arrived, so we sat for five minutes before going in.

Cooling off before heading underground

Keith rigged off the tree and was just trying to get into the cleft when Colum Walsh, Ann Soulsby and Roy Rodgers from Masson Caving Group arrived.

Keith rigging

Paul and I chatted to them while Keith dangled and grunted and groaned, trying to get into a very slippery rift, known as the 'Lateral Cleft' route.  Eventually we followed him down and the others started rigging a ‘new’ route.  Once in the cleft, the first pitch drops in two short sections within the rift.  The second pitch was a ‘throw yourself through and pray you can get back up’ jobbie, then a straightforward deviation, around the corner to the right to another rebelay.  I found the next drop awkward, with a deviation high up on the right.  I tried it backing out with my feet on both walls, but I didn’t like the foot holds, so put both feet on the opposite wall to move the krab and then dropped onto a big ledge, part way down the main shaft.  The last pitch is a lovely dangle and I landed all excited only to be overwhelmed by the evil stench of dead sheep at the bottom.  I then got so carried away with the view above and trying to photograph it that I forgot to let Paul know the rope was free.  As he came down the last pitch, I could also see Roy who was rigging the 'new' more direct route.

Roy (left) and Paul (right) descending two different routes

As Roy landed, we headed off to the traverse and the final drop into the bottom, which pretty much stops dead, apart from a dig in the floor, which appears to go down at least 30ft.  Sadly we didn't have a rope or a hanger for that one.  Back in the main shaft, Roy suggested that as Ann was rigging the route we’d followed, with Colum, one of us could go back up his 9mm rope and ease the congestion, so I took the 20m rope and headed up.

Paul and Keith on their way up

Paul went up, followed by Keith and I managed to get photos of the two of them at different rebelays, from my vantage point on the rope across the shaft.  Having passed my rebelay, I reached a big ledge and then followed the MCG rope out of the far end of the rift opening.  I then sat on the lip of the pot (clipped-in to a handy bolt!) getting midged until the guys appeared.  What a cracking trip!  There had clearly been some heavy rain while we were underground, because by the time I surfaced there was a small flow into the pot by the tree, which hadn’t been there before, but even though the water levels were higher than usual it was still a safe trip.

Ferns clinging tenaciously to the very walls of the pot

On our way back to the cars to get changed, we followed the Turbary Road, a green lane that runs along the west side of Kingsdale, and passed Aquamole, Rowten Pot, Simpson's Pot and Swinsto Hole, before dropping down a very greasy path back to the lane.

Keith and Paul admiring the rigging entrance to Rowten Pot, which was steaming gently

Ingleborough and the lower part of the beautiful Kingsdale

Paul and Keith enjoying the sunshine at Greenclose

August Bank Holiday - Pen-y-Ghent - 25 Aug 12

After quite a debate about the weather, we decided to head to Yorkshire for the August Bank Holiday weekend.  It was a mixed weekend.  Saturday was very wet, so we decided to walk up Pen-y-Ghent and passed Hull Pot and Hunt Pot on the way.

Keith at Hull Pot, a huge open hole below Pen-y-Ghent

Keith above Hunt Pot

Paul descending near the top of Pen-y-Ghent - the path had become a stream

Pen-y-Ghent from the south

Limestone pavement.

Not a good photo, but this is Hull Pot in flood on Sunday, 24 January 1992 - that's a scary amount of water!

Chinley, Cracken Edge, Pennine Bridleway

Drove over to Chinley and parked up. Went a little further along the road and turned right and over a footbridge over the railway. We headed uphill through a park and came out on Stubbins Lane, turned left and then right onto a track with rock walls and dry stone walls. We followed this all the way to the top of the hill, where the wall turned to the left and so did the path, heading towards Cracken Edge. We continued over more level ground to a winch at the top of an inclined plane, just below the quarry workings.


We followed the path along below the various quarries, stopping for a quick hot drink and a snack until we came to an isolated house/barn called Whiterakes, where a guy was happily getting his Range Rover stuck in the mud. We'd almost reached the road by the time he caught us up and he then turned around and seemed to be waiting to go back up again. We crossed the road and walked a short distance along the grass verge and turned up another lane. Unfortunately our route went just off the edge of the bit of map that I'd got to look at at that point, so when we reached the Pennine Bridle Way, I clearly wasn't exactly sure where we were and we started tromping off down into the next valley, which suddenly began to look very familiar from our walks up to Kinder Downfall. We were about half way down when I realised that we'd gone completely wrong and turned us around. By that time I was starving hungry and would have liked to have stopped for lunch, but we trudged back to the gate at the saddle between two small hills and tucked ourselves in behind the wall. It was worth it, the views were spectacular and we were nice and sheltered. One or two people came past, but we were mostly in the company of skylarks, curlews and a solitary plover in the middle of the next field - good spot by Paul. We tracked back to where we'd initially gone wrong and turned up the Pennine Bridle Way heading south (rather than northeast!!). We were soon overtaken by four guys on mountain bikes as we followed the track along the south side of Mount Famine and just north of South Head, and dropping down the far side. Although the PBW continued another 3¼ miles to Perryfoot, we turned right and followed another track steeply down past Beet Farm to Hull End, where we left what had by then become a lane and headed off across the fields, to cross the A624 again and after a few more fields pick up another track into the back of Chinley. I was absolutely knackered by that time and extremely glad to see Paul's car!!