Bull Pot, Kingsdale

Again the day started with breakfast at Bernies. Today was forecasted as possible showers of light drizzle and as we wanted a relatively short trip, it was suggested to visit Bull Pot in Kingsdale.

We said “goodbye” to Mark who had to head for home leaving Mike, Keith, Karen and myself to first have breakfast (at Bernies, surprise, surprise) then head for Kingsdale.

As we were changing in a layby in Kingsdale a van with a couple of cavers stopped and asked if we were planning on Bull Pot – it turned out that they were as well.

Anyway, the other pair had changed first and were heading up the valley side towards the cave as we followed a little while later. Again, Keith was on rigging duty as we followed behind the other pair down Bull Pot.

The usual entrance pitch using the in-situ P bolts was already rigged by the first pair and I suggested to Keith to try using the alternative two Petzl stainless steel resin bolts in the large boulder above the open pot as these seemed to give a clear hang to the bottom without the need for a deviation like the P bolt route. There was a convenient extra P bolt to act a s back up and this alternative rig seemed better than the other.

The other pair had begun the approach to the second pitch using the traverse approach which presumably is there for wetter conditions and Keith followed their example. Again, in case I damaged my shoulder I decided to walk along the floor a short way down and then as I was able to climb up just before the pitch and clip my long cowstail into the rope, I was able to safely approach the Y-hang without using the traverse.

I dropped down last once Mike had shouted “Rope free” and then followed down the Slot alternative third pitch to the chamber below.

The approach to the fourth pitch is via a traverse which is a bit constricted and awkward (well it is for someone of my size!) so I decided to just pack it in there and wait while the others continued as there was just one more nearby pitch to the final sump and end of the cave.

The other pair were now on their way out an Karen told them I was waiting at the top of the fourth pitch so they could continue on their way out. Soon the first caver was up and groaning as he made his way off the top of the pitch and along the traverse saying “I hate this bit, it's always hard!”. Then once they had de-rigged the pitch and continued to the nearby chamber below the third pitch I heard “I hate this bit!”

It makes you wonder why he bothered!

Anyway, I waited for a while and soon heard the others returning. Mike was up first with a tackle bag holding the rope for the final pitch (plus originally the rope for the entrance pitch) so I took this off him and started making by way back up the pitches.

I was soon on the surface at around 13:00 and within half an hour, joined by the other three.

In order to beat the Bank Holiday Monday traffic, we all went straight home afterwards – although Karen and I stopped off at Greenclose on the way to collect our gear and then return the key to the New Inn and collect the £10 deposit.

Marble Steps Pot

There had been quite a lot of heavy rain during the night so we decided to leave Diccan Pot for another day and changed plans to Marble Steps Pot. Again the forecast was for occasional light showers.

We met Mark Silo in the morning at breakfast at Bernies in Ingleton. Afterwards we drove to Masongill Lane where there was a very large amount of run-off gravel and small rocks on the road as you reach the water treatment building with a very obvious increase in erosion on the lane as it headed away uphill towards Turbary Road.

We met another group of cavers getting changed and although they were also planning on a trip in Marble Steps Pot, they were only intending to drop down the Sidewinder route and then return, while we were planning on the alternative Gully Route and further.

I clambered down the surface gully and waited for Keith and the others as Keith was doing the rigging. I was last in our group to start down the ropes and I had trouble getting past the rebelay just inside the cave! Typical – it's a little awkward as you have to swing a bit to reach it and then are quite off balance when getting past. I hadn't dropped down far enough initially and couldn't reach the rebelay so dropped sown a little more. I didn't want to injure my shoulder which is still a bit weak after an old injury so I gave up and left the others to continue.

They had what sounded like a great trip and reached the bottom of the cave.

Afterwards we returned to Bernies for a meal for some of us while the rest had food in the New Inn, Clapham.

Alum Pot

Karen and I drove up to the Yorkshire Dales last night and met Keith in the New Inn in Clapham on one of his rare visits on a caving trip starting on a Friday night. Pete Collins was expecting to accompany Keith but sadly his mother wasn't well.

We stayed in Greenclose, the Northern Pennine Club's hut near Clapham where except for Dave (of 'potholer.com' and Bisun Lights) who is an NPC member, we had the place to ourselves.

We had an excellent trip to the bottom of Alum Pot via Lower Long Churn Cave and had the system to ourselves until we met an instructed group making their way into Lower Long Churn at Plank Pool.

There had been a bit of rain the day before and last night but the forecast was for occasional light showers so we had changed plans form Diccan Pot to Alum Pot and decided we could have a look at how much water was flowing down Diccan and perhaps return tomorrow and drop down that pot.

We had a good look first at the top of Diccan and later looking up from the sump at the bottom of both Alum and Diccan Pots. The water levels were fairly low so there should be no problems the next day.

There had been reports of car crime occurring at Selside Lane where you park for Alum Pot and it was nice to see a Police van checking things out both while we were getting changed to go caving and also afterwards.

Another visit to Bernies for a meal and afterwards back to the New Inn. Later on we met Mike Child who had come to go caving for a couple of days but has to work Saturdays.

Eyam from Sir William Hill

Karen had volunteered to help at the DCRO “bag pack” at Morrisons supermarket in Buxton and I went for another walk!

This time I parked on the beginning of the rough track of Sir William Hill Road and crossed Eyam Moor, with it's blooming heather, by following the path along the drystone wall heading North-west until I arrived at the path along the edge overlooking Bretton Clough.

This leads downwards to the path junction at Stoke Ford and along the South side of Bretton Brook.

At a “T” junction with the path from Abney, I took the left turn and after carefully passing a section overgrown with nettles, I arrived at a minor road leading past Bretton Youth Hostel to the junction of another road at the pub called The Barrel Inn which is the highest pub in Derbyshire. Positioned as it is at the top of Eyam Edge, it certainly can boast wide-ranging views.

After turning left at the pub, I left the road very soon afterwards at a stile leading downwards and then at an angle to the slope of Eyam Edge soon arriving at the processing works marked as “Black Hole Mine” on the map.

I followed the signposted route through the works and onto the road leading into Eyam Village renowned for the inhabitant's sacrifices during the Plague in 1665. Here there was unfortunately a kilometre or so of road to walk, luckily with a footpath on one side for the majority of its length.

Passing the church and Primary School, I stopped at the tea shop in The Square for a snack and mug of tea, then returned to the church following a Public Footpath passing through the churchyard. This led to some fields passing one field with alpacas to arrive at a minor road quite a bit higher than the village.

On the other side of the road, the Public Footpath continued again uphill, passing Eyam Youth Hostel to cross yet another minor road. This led to a large field with a lesser slope passing the chimney of the old Ladywash Mine in the next field soon arriving back at Sir William Hill Road.

I turned right and followed the rough track downhill back to where I had parked earlier.

I had seen clouds of these on Kinder Scout and more today. I looked it up in a book on insects. It's a Heather Fly!

A neatly split tree - struck by lightning?

One of the Plague Cottages in Eyam

Eyam Church

8th Century Celtic Cross

Sundial dated 1775

Alpaca

Chimney belonging to old Ladywash Mine

Kinder Scout

A different route for a change. Karen was entertaining her friend Lorraine who was visiting from Rugby and I decided on a walk. Leaving the car at the Barber Booth car park, I walked up the road to Barber Booth, then followed the Pennine Way route to Grindsbrook Booth. After a short visit to the village shop, I continued on the Public Footpath opposite the church across to Ollerbrook Farm.

From the farm, an old sunken track led up the sloping fields behind the farm buildings following Oller Brook and into Oller Brook Clough.

The sunken track dwindled away leaving a narrow footpath leading onwards and where a field wall headed steeply up to the right, I followed this wall which was very steep but thankfully not very long until the ground levelled out next to a small ruined building incorrectly marked as “sheep fold” on the map.

From here I contoured up the slope for a short while then found a sloping path which continued up to the path along this edge of the Kinder plateau above Rowland Cote Moor and Edale Youth Hostel.

I followed the path along the edge, with views across to the Great Ridge along the Edale Valley and gradually other views opened up with Derwent Edge in the distance, Ladybower Reservoir, the Alport Valley (where we were last week) and the road below threading its way along the Snake Pass as I reached the prominent point of Crookstone Knoll.

There were clouds of flying insects which seemed harmless and were more intent on mating as I paused to take some photos. These turned out to be Heather Flies. These are quite distinctive as they fly around slowly with quite long rear legs which dangle beneath them as they fly.

I continued along the edge above Ashop Moor until near the Trig. Point at 590 metres altitude, I left the path to head South for a few hundred metres to soon reach the fence surrounding the area above Ringing Roger.

I crossed the fence using a stile and at the fence on the opposite side again crossed the fence using a second stile and then made my way down the crest of Ringing Roger and then followed the remaining path to Grindsbrook Booth.

All that remained was to retrace my route back to the car park at Barber Booth.

Longshaw Estate

Today's walk started from the road leading to the café at Grindleford train station climbing steeply up towards the National Trust's Longshaw Estate then along the edge above Yarncliff Wood looking across to Lose Hill and Back Tor in the distance.

As we walked through the Estate grounds, we saw a Green Woodpecker flying past and after following the path past the large pond we arrived at the National Trust café next to the impressive Longshaw Lodge, were we stopped to had sausage rolls and a pot of tea.

Afterwards, we followed the drive leading to Fox House Inn and the road to Grindleford, then crossed the road and followed the path leading through woods to soon arrive at Burbage Bridge and the Sheffield Road.

After crossing this road, we followed a path through the bracken leading towards the large rocky promontories of Carlwark and Higgar Tor before turning off in the direction of Over Owler Tor.

We followed the path down past the gritstone tor called Mother Cap again reaching the Sheffield Road, which we crossed and followed and old sunken path leading to the top of Padley Gorge where we had the choice of two ice cream vans to get and ice cream from!

We had an ice cream while sitting on some boulders where families and children were picknicking next to Burbage Brook.

We followed the path leading down Padley Gorge to arrive back at Grindleford Station, where we had started from.

Guide Stoop near Estate entrance

Heather in Bloom

Higgar Tor

Alport Castles from Birchen Clough

We arrived at the layby at Birchen Clough on the Snake Pass Road to find surprisingly only one car already there. This turned out to be Pete Mellors from the DCA who was planning to walk in Kinder Scout.

After a brief chat we left Pete and his partner and we headed down the road for about 200 metres then followed a footpath which was marked as heading for Lady Clough and Oyster Clough.

This brought us through some woods made up largely of coniferous trees and after reaching a wooden fence and stile, following the course of an old Roman Road. This brought us to Cowms Moor and we walked through several fields to arrive at Hayridge Farm where we joined a farm track heading North.

As we walked along the track, we saw a small bird of prey flying around and landing on the top of a telegraph pole.

Further along the track, we could see the area of a large landslip called Alport Castles on the other side of the River Alport valley, said to be the largest landslip in the UK. We soon arrived at another farm: Alport Castles Farm, and here we followed a footpath leading steeply up to the edge of the moor called Birchenlee Pasture.

Where a footbridge crossed the river, we stopped to have a snack but were soon being pestered by midges, so we moved further along the path to higher ground away from the water and then had our snack.

We moved off after the snack and were soon following the path along the edge overlooking Alport Castles. We followed this path along the edge looking down into the valley below with the meandering river until we found a convenient spot to drop down the valley side where it wasn't so steep and after finding a place to cross using boulders, we climbed up the opposite side near Over Wood Moss.

Checking the map and setting a course using the compass, we crossed the moorland with the occasional peat grough, as we headed back towards Birchin Clough using the obvious features of Fairbrook Naze and Blackden Brook on the side of Kinder Scout in the distance to keep us on the correct heading until we met the intermittent path leading to Birchin Clough, marked on the map.

We followed this path until we arrived at the very steep section leading back down to the layby where we had started.

Remains of an ancient wood from the period before the peat was laid down

P8

Karen Keith and I took prospective new Orpheus Caving Club members Alan and his 20 year old son Martin on a trip in P8.

Unfortunately, there were already several cars parked in the layby so we parked on the other side of the main road by the cattle grid outside the farm.

We laddered both the first pitch and “true” second pitch while the other party had laddered the alternative second pitch.

We all had an enjoyable trip and both Alan and Martin also enjoyed their first trip underground.

Water Icicle Close Cavern

Another visit to the new extensions in Water Icicle Close Cavern. This was a trip organised for Orpheus Caving Club members but only Mat and Nikki, Doug and Elaine took up the offer, with the trip being led by Karen.

I joined Keith as he visited the newly-scaffolded section at Cherty-Two choke to grind off some scaffold clamp bolt ends which were located where cavers could catch them with their knees or heads.

A Walk Around Old Mining Sites in Winster

Karen and I joined about a dozen others on a walk around areas of mining history interest in Winster area organised by PDMHS and led by Tony Wood. We visited mainly the Winster Pitts area.