The Grampian Speleological Group Bulletin

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ISSN 0306 1698

the grampian

speleological group

bulletin

Fourth Series Vol.5 No.2

March 2012 price £2 GSG Bulletin Fourth Series Vol.5 No.2

CONTENTS

Page Number

Editorial 1 Meet Reports 3 Additions to the Library 5 Book Review 8 Vale: Freddie Brandon 9 The Great Scottish Speleothem Mystery 10 GSG Jubilee in Slovenia 12 Bogle Cave, Clashmore 14 Croatia On the Side 15 Bowden Hill - The Final Frontier? 17 Cave Illustrations of Scotland (3) 18 Mallorca 2011 19 Water of Leith ‘Cave’? 21 Yet Another Wallace’s Cave 22 Postscript: Garleton Haematite Mine 31 Jubilee Digging in Croatia 32 La Palma 2011 35 Book Review: Log of the Wookey Hole Exploration Expedition 1935 36 The Great Cave of Smoo 37 Something Absurd About the Past 46

Cover: Bill Heeps in Sunset Hole, 1973. Design: A. Jeffreys

Obtainable from:

The Grampian Speleological Group 8 Scone Gardens Edinburgh EH8 7DQ

(0131 661 1123)

Web Site: http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/~arb/gsg/ -1- the grampian speleological group

Editorial:

Always assuming Nostradamus and the Mayans got it wrong, 2013 will witness the 50th anniversary of this Bulletin which has appeared more or less regularly since June 1963; a total of 97 issues to date. Although the first three bulletins were very modest affairs, produced on a 1940s Imperial typewriter with carbon copies, there was never any doubt in my mind that this unprepossessing piece of literature would mature into the staple source of information on Scottish caves and caving and, undeniably, that is in fact what has happened. ‘Way back, I harboured ambitions to produce a Scottish Journal of Speleology but attempts to secure scholarly contributions failed - most researchers nowadays are funded by university sponsors who have first claim on the publication of any new work - and merely creating what would be a glorified bulletin was not considered worthwhile. We have of course published several regional caving guides which seek to be more than merely route maps for sporting cavers, with chapters on geology, geomorphology and the like, but there is cutting edge scientific research being carried out in Scotland’s cave systems and it would have been good to coalesce this information into one coherent publication.

Musing further on records leads me to consider my own position as editor. I conceived and produced the very first bulletin and have been compiler and editor for 88 issues over a period of nearly 50 years. (There was a gap from 1980 to 1986 when I relinquished the editorial pen for nine issues, except for Vol.3 No.5 (1982) which was the club’s 21st anniversary number). I have not thoroughly explored the byways of British caving journals in the library but would be interested to find out if any other editor can claim such a pedigree. I have witnessed tremendous changes over this half century particularly, in this context, to the quality of publication emanating from sometimes quite modest clubs - we have travelled a great distance from foolscap sheets defaced by smudgy methylated spirit printing, through Roneo and Gestetner stencils and offset litho to the glossy, full colour, top of the range layouts commonly seen today, thanks to advanced word processing, desktop publishing and affordable printing processes.

It all got me wondering what qualities are required to make a committed editor. After all, I can’t go on for ever; even mega-beings fade away at some point! It should go without saying that whomever performs the duties of an editor must have a passion for his/her subject and an over-arching desire to ensure its appearance in some published form for the enlightenment of the masses. Thus, in a similar way to a librarian or archivist, he/she must constantly be on the lookout for potential material. I even recall occasions in the past when I deliberately set out to go caving just to create something useful to fill up a slim Bulletin!

This process is not without difficulties. Discovering new caves is one thing; getting the discoverers to record every little detail in print is quite another. My conclusion, emanating from familiarity with dozens of other club journals, is that this is a common theme: all editors, it appears, struggle to extract meaningful contributions from club members. I’m sure it’s not because the fluency level has gone down. Most people in my experience suffer from verbal diarrhoea when placed in front of an email. And I’m not that worried about the subtleties of English grammar. Language is a constantly evolving phenomenon and using words like brush strokes in painting appeals more to me than whether your verb is correctly applied as a present perfective or if you have used a complex noun phrase incorrectly. Write as you speak (or think) and you’ll not go far wrong. Any really glaring faux pas will be quietly hoovered up by the editor anyway - that’s his job.

It also helps if an editor - at least in the case of our Bulletin - has a creative streak to be utilised in the compi- lation of covers, the layout, continuity and balance of contributions. Naturally, one has to keep a strict eye out for what may be interpreted as libel, scandal or ‘dirty washing’. The Bulletin is the Group’s ‘shop window’ where there should be no place for in-house politics or similar shenanigans. The proper vehicle for that is our newsletter, which is for internal circulation only. Also, a dedicated editor should chase up and check all facts (a task I have not always achieved properly!) to ensure accurate reportage. -2- Another headache concerns deadlines and publication dates. There appears to be a widespread belief in this country that articles may be promised, but not actually submitted in a finished form until right up against the closing date for material, when everything is expected to be magically translated into a finished magazine almost overnight, as it were. Phrases such as ‘but it was received too late for this issue’, ‘It’s your magazine, please support it’ or ‘I know things have been happening, but nobody has written them up’ appear with monot- onous regularity in club magazines received for the library. Frequently, I have to trawl through the logbooks for subjects and then appeal to the originators to write something for the Bulletin. The solution is both simple and practical: record your findings immediately after returning from a trip while enthusiasm or triumph still flows through your veins. Not only will you ‘sell’ your subject with more passion but with things fresh in your mind, no vital piece of the narrative is going to be overlooked. Procrastination introduces too many opportu- nities for error. Submit your article then and there, don’t wait for a deadline date. Editors like to know well in advance what is going into their publications. They also like to get them out by the stated issue date, an ob- jective not helped by delays caused by late submission.

I suppose the whole thing is really a labour of love - a love of the printed word underlining a desire to ensure the GSG continues to record, inform about and distribute information on Scottish caves for anyone whose interests bring them closer to our work. Ultimately, all personal underground experiences will die with us: mere internal memories dissipated into the ether. Through the medium of publication they can still be available for other readers to share in the future, but only if you commit them to paper, as it were. Looking back, 97 Bulletins represents a quite considerable body of material but substantial amounts of it would probably never have appeared in print but for my badgering the authors. Over 50 years this has needed a lot of passion; a complete dedication to the ethic outlined above. It may not win you a lot of friends, but satisfaction is guaranteed. Why do it? Because, to quote Dr Samuel Johnson: “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” ***** At the close of 2011, news broke of another hard-earned connection being made in the ‘Three Counties System’ in the Dales, realising a near100 km network that does indeed run under three counties. These latest extensions from Notts Pot and Ireby Fell Cavern demonstrate just how much remains to be discovered even in Britain, where every nook and crannie seems to be investigated on almost a weekly basis. Even though, as a pastime, caving appears to be gradually shrinking, discoveries continue to reward persistent diggers and divers. It could well be described as another Golden Age - one where triumph follows graft, rather than happenstance - and it shows little sign of coming to an end. A greater understanding of the phreas has been gained by the explorations of cave divers and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Three Counties System being extended into the heart of Ingleborough in the years ahead. Other massive revelations await the explorer underneath Penyghent and Fountains Fell, and, further east, behind the Black Keld Rising. In other parts of the UK, we still have not entered the confluence of Mendip’s major caves beyond Wookey Hole, or accessed the huge system theorised to lie in the Black Mountain behind Dan yr Ogof. In our own back yard, although the major elements of Traligill’s drainage have been explored, the junction between Allt nan Uamh Stream Cave and Uamh an Claonaite remains a tempting lure, and the discovery of Uamh nam Fior Iongantais in Applecross holds the promise of a future link-up with Uamh nam Breagaire, a result that would promote our Jurassic limestones into Scotland’s major league.

Who would have thought, a few years ago, that the GSG would win J-Rat’s Digging Award? If this can happen in Scotland, where caves are manifestly modest, who knows what the future holds? I find it all very encouraging and, while foreign caving admittedly promotes overdosing on wonder and exploration, I am also pleased to be able to read British journals filled (for a change) with good old home-grown discoveries. It’s like being back in the 1950s when most cavers had to concentrate on their home turf because foreign travel was so expensive and cumbersome. This factor may stimulate recruitment in a recession, offering diversion and worth-while exercise for a modest outlay. Deep down, most people yearn for some form of adventure in their lives and boy, can we offer it!

Alan L. Jeffreys, Editor -3- MEET REPORTS (to 19.2.12) (Edinburgh logbooks only)

It has been a moderately quiet autumn and winter season, but with a resurgence of interest in Appin, active digs in Sutherland and ongoing work in Applecross, 2012 holds the promise of new discoveries and advances in exploration on many fronts.

ARGYLL

A welcome upsurge of activity in Appin commenced in October when a 14-strong team staged a practice rescue from Uamh Duilean Bhriste for BBC Scotland’s ‘Landward’ programme, which went well despite miserable weather.

November started with a visit to caves at the south end of Glen Stockdale, including Glen Stockdale Cave/Ris- ing, Heifer’s Outwash, Short Circuit and Roaring Waters. The next weekend, five descended Uamh nan Claig- ionn and Duilean Bhriste, the latter having a small extension in the ultimate bedding plane. The following day there were trips into Uamh Coire Sheileach and Clearmidge Hole, where a potential continuation was noted at the bottom.

A team of seven trudged through snow to Chamber Pot in December, which was duly bottomed and yet another visit to Duilean Bhriste allowed further examination of the terminal bedding plane.

EAST LOTHIAN

Arising out of a query from Norman Murphy, Ivan Young went searching for a Wallace’s Cave near Haddington in January, failing to locate it with the NGR provided. After the AGM in February, joined by John Crae and Goon, a further search revealed the cave at a nearby outcrop. (See this issue). A quick look for the site of Garleton Haematite Mine also failed.

KINCARDINESHIRE

While on a job at Muchalls just south of Aberdeen in December, Goon searched for Muchalls Cave where a hermit once lived.(See GSG Bulletin 4th Series 2(2) (2004) pp 34-35). This was not found but some other short caves and arches were looked at in the general area.

MIDLOTHIAN

More or less on behalf of Historic Scotland, three members investigated a brick-lined ice house at Mavisbank House, Loanhead in October, which Ivan surveyed with the club’s DistoX.

ROSS AND CROMARTY

More exploration was carried out in Uamh nam Fior Iongantais in September, with some extension to Swiss Cheese Crawl. The same month, fissure caves on the Point of Sleat, Isle of Skye were checked out.

December saw a tourist descent of Cave of the Liar at Applecross, slightly frustrated by Metal Puzzle Squeeze. In January, a through trip was made into a 100 metre sea cave on Rhum.

SLOVENIA (& CROATIA)

August saw a club caving holiday in Slovenia, to celebrate the Jubilee. Many caves were visited, and by in- vitation, an offshoot group drove down to Croatia for some trips with the Croatian cavers who had visited Scotland. Articles in this issue detail the systems entered. -4- SOMERSET

On the occasion of the presentation of J-Rat’s Digging Award, two members plumbed the awesome depths of Templeton in November and the same weekend members joined the team digging in Home Close Hole.

SUTHERLAND

A club outing in September saw an examination of Campbell’s Cave and Allt nan Uamh Stream Cave. Down- stream of Cuil Dubh a new hole beginning to develop was re-visited and after a short dig some four metres of tight passage were revealed. The following weekend Uamh Cailliche Peireag was checked out.

At the end of October an (almost) final filming session was achieved in Rana Hole, where a few odd corners were dug into and a few new metres gained. A good digging session in Campbell’s Cave was augmented by trips into East Block and the Great Northern Time Machine, Uamh an Claonaite. At the same time Dick Grind- ley finally located, to his satisfaction, the elusive ‘Bogle Cave’ at Clashmore. All participants then retired to the Annual Dinner at Ullapool.

Braving deep snowfall in December, a party of five dug into a choked depression in the floor of Concretehead, Uamh an Claonaite. This promises to provide a route back to Claonaite 3,5 or 6 and the dig was continued two weeks later while some taping off of mud formations was achieved using BCA approved orange tape. There was also a trip into Otter Hole. The weekend was significant for the total loss of the old Knockan hut.

In mid-February, there were a couple of trips down Rana Hole when odds and ends were examined, and digging continued in Concretehead, with boulders being snappered. A new dig closer to sump 6b was also commenced, which is easy progress through sand and clag and seems to be within ten metres of sump 5. Tourist/photographic trips were also achieved in Allt nan Uamh Stream Cave and Cnoc nan Uamh.

WEST LOTHIAN

Trips were made into Hole 3, Bowden Hill Mine in February to pursue investigations into possible connections with Hole 2. In Octopus Series, a flat crawl was passed into crumbly territory, but a follow-up trip the next weekend revealed that it had all been entered in 1968. Thereafter a trip was made into Hole 2 and out of Hole 1 - not done very often.

YORKSHIRE

An enjoyable winter season started in late November when three independent club trips occurred, with an introductory descent of Long Churn Cave into Alum Pot, a six-strong party visiting Shuttleworth Pot on a photographic trip and two others going into Cripple Creek, Ireby Fell Cavern, exiting in rather wet conditions. There was also a Lancaster-Easegill through trip with EUG members.

In the New Year, a party descended Lost John’s Cavern, achieving an exchange between Centipede and Cathe- dral routes. At the end of January an introductory meet at Calf Holes was attended by 14 people and the next day, five of them went down Shuttleworth Pot. ------Taigh nam Famh.

The GSG caving field centre at Elphin in Sutherland, is available for hire, £5 per head per night for non-members. Fully equipped (self catering) with drying room, heated bunks, hot showers and modern kitchen. Book via Hut Warden, Peter Dowswell at: [email protected] ------oOo------5- ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY (to 22.2.12)

1. BOOKS:

Clymer, V.H. (1949) Story of Howe Caverns De Joly, R. (1963) Comment on Descend Sous Terre. Steele, C.W. (2009) Huautla. Thirty Years in One of the World’s Deepest Caves McConnell, M. (1999) Emergence. [Adult caving novel - signed copy] Klappacher, W. (1992) Salzburger Höhlenbuch, Band 5. László, K. 1984) Magyarország Barlangjai [Caves of Hungary] Quinlan, P.H. (2004) Beneath Their Feet.[Adult caving novel] Hildreth-Werker, V & J.C. werker [Eds] (2006) Cave Conservation and Restoration [6th edition] Bahn, P. & P. Pettitt (2009) Britain’s Oldest Art, The Ice Age Cave Art of Creswell Crags Johnson, D. (2008) Ingleborough. Landscape and History Cooper, A. (2011) Cave [Adult caving novel] Aldhouse-Green, S. (2000) Paviland Cave and the ‘Red Lady’. A Definitive Report. Clark, B. (2010) Visions of Mulu.

3.CAVING JOURNALS:

Association of Mexican Cave Studies, Newsletter Nos. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,10,12,14,15,33. (1975-2010) Australian Speleological Federation, Journal ‘Caves’ Nos.172,173,174,1275,176,177,178,183. (2006-2010) Axbridge Caving Group, Journal April 1998; April 2005 Bristol Exploration Club, Belfry Bulletin Nos. 540,541,542 (2011) Bristol Exploration Club (Vintagers) Bulletin November 2011 BCA Newsletter No.15 (2011) BCRA Newsletter Aug. (2011) BCRA ‘Cave & Karst Science’ Vol. 38 No.3 (2011) BCRA ‘Speleology’ No.18 (2011) BCRA Cave Radio & Electronics Group, Newsletter Dec. (2011) BCRA Cave Radio & Electronics Group, Journal No.76 (2011) Cave Diving Group. Derbyshire Sump Index.(T.D. Ford) (1968) Cave Diving Group, Newsletter Nos. 181,182 (2011-12) Chelsea Speleological Society, Newsletter Vol. 53 Nos. 9/10, 11/12 Vol. 54 No.1/2 (2011-12) Comite Departmental de Speleologie de l’Isere ‘Scialet’ No.8 (1979) Craven Pothole Club, ‘Record’ Nos. 104,105 (2011-12) Descent Nos.222,223,224 (2011-12) Die Höhle Vol.62 Nos. 1-4 (2011) Federation Francaise de Speleologie ‘Spelunca’ Nos. 95,99,113,114,115 (2004-2009) Grupo Bambui de Pesquisas Espeleologicas, Brasil ‘Ocarste’ Vol.15 No.4 Vol.16 Nos. 1,2 Vol.17 Nos 3,4 Vol.18 Nos. 1,4 (2003-2006) Italian Speleological Society ‘Speleologia’ Year 32 No. 65 (2011) Grupo Espeleologica Alaves/Arabako Espeleologi Taldea ‘Koloska’ No.5 (2010) ‘Karszt es Barlang’ (Hungary) 1962 Nos. I,II 1963 Nos. I,II 1964 Nos. I,II -6- Mendip Caving Group, Newsletter No. 367 (2012) 1965 Nos. I,II 1966 Nos. I,II 1967 No. I-II 1968 No. I-II 1971 Nos. I,II 1976 No. I-II Mendip Nature Research Committee, Newsletter Nos. 60,66 (1970-72) Mendip Nature Research Committee Caving Bulletin Vol.1 Nos. 3,4 (1967) Mountain Rescue (England & Wales ) Nos.38,39 (2011-12) Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland, ‘Casbag’ Nos. 25,26 (2011) NAMHO Newsletter Sept. 2011, Dec. 2011 National Speleological Society of USA,’News’ Vol. 33 No.4 Vol.68 Nos, 10,11,12 Vol.69 Nos.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 (1975-2011) New Zealand Speleological Society Bulletin No.41 (1962) New Zealand Speleological Society, Bulletin Index Nos. 1-20 (1956) Nos. 41-60 (1966) Orpheus Caving Club, Newsletter Vol. 46 Nos. 4-6, 7-9 (2010) Orpheus Caving Club, 60 Years of the Orpheus in Pictures (2009) Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club, Newsletter Vol. 49 No.1 (2012) Sheffield Univ. Speleological Society, Journal Vol.5 Nos. 1,2 (2010-11) Shepton Mallet Caving Club, Journal Series 12 Nos. 7,8 (2010) Shepton Mallet Caving Club, ‘Caving in North Wales’ Occ. Paper No.2 (1960) Shepton Mallet Caving Club, Newsletter Vol.9 No.2 Vol. 14 No.5 Vol. 15 No.5 Vol. 17 Nos. 1-6 Vol. 18 Nos. 1-6 Vol. 19 Nos. 1,2, 4-6 Vol. 28 Nos. 1-5 Vol. 29 Nos. 2-7 Vol. 30 Nos. 1,3,4,5/6 Vol. 31 Nos. 1-4 Vol. 32 No. 4 Vol. 33 Nos. 3-6 Vol. 34 Nos. 1,2,4,5 Vol. 35 Nos. 1-4 Vol. 36 Nos. 1,2,4,5 Vol. 37 Nos. 1-6 Vol. 38 Nos. 1-5 Vol. 39 Nos. 1-5 Vol. 40 Nos. 1-7 Vol. 41 Nos. 1-3 Vol. 42 Nos. 1-4 Vol. 43 Nos. 1-4 Vol. 44 Nos. 1-4 Vol. 45 Nos. 1-5 Vol. 46 Nos. 1-4 Vol. 47 Nos. 1,3 (1972-2010) Societe Speleologique du Maroc ‘Ghar’ Nos. 1,2,3 (1956-57) South African Speleological Association, Newsletter Nos. 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (1954-56) -7- South African Speleological Association, Bulletin Vol.1 Nos.1,2 Vol.2 Nos. 1,2,3,4 Vol.3 Nos. 1,2,3 Vol.4 Nos 1,3 (1956-59) 1960 Parts 1,2,3 1961 Parts 1,2 1962 Part 2 1970 1975 Speleo-club du Liban ‘Al Ouat’Ouate’ Nos. 1,2,15 (1957-58) Subterranea Britannica, ‘Subterranea’ No.28 (2011) Subterranea Croatica Vol. 8 No.13 (2011) Swiss Speleological Society ‘Stalactite’ Year 25 No.1 (1975) Wessex Cave Club, Journal No. 324 (2012) Sydney Speleological Society, Journal Vol. 55 Nos. 1-12 (2011) Westminster SpelaeologicalGroup, Newsletter Nos. 2011/1, 2011/2

4.MAPS:

1”=4 miles. Geological Map Sheet 15, of East Lothian, Berwickshire. (1912) Tourist Illustrative Map of the Yorkshire Dales (no date) 2½” to 1 mile O.S. Map 436 Beinn Dearg and Loch Fannich

5. CAVE GUIDES, ABSTRACTS ETC.:

Abstract: Marshall, D.N. (c.1938) A Survey of the Caves of Bute and the Cumbraes. From Buteshire Natural History Society.pp. 113-118. No. 1409 Abstract: Maxwell, H.E. (1885) St Ninian’s Cave, Glasserton in Archaeological Collections of Ayrshire and Galloway. (copy No.28 of 400) pp.1-8 + 10 plates. No. 1410 Abstract: Mitchell, I. (2010) Knockan on the Door of Renewal. Earth Heritage No.34, p.2 No. 1411 Leaflet: Staffa. National Nature Reserve. Leaflet: Hawkestone Park Follies, Shropshire Abstract: Dia, M. & R. Guzman (no date) Walking in the Underworld (Philippines). Source unknown.8pp. No. 1412 Abstract: Brush, J. (2011) A Visit to Smoo Cave - the Only Show Cave in Scotland. Australian Cave & Karst Management Association Journal No. 83, pp. 23-26. No. 1414 Abstract: The Wanlockhead Hydraulic Engines. Anon (2007) NAMHO. 8pp. No. 1413. Abstract: Nottingham Underground. D. Strange-Walker & J. Clarke. Current Archaeology No. 260 (2011), pp. 34-41. No. 1415 Mollard, G. (2010) The Hydrology of Goyden Pot and Manchester Hole. BCA. 17pp. No. 1416 Pettitte, P. & M. White (2012) The First Modern Human in Britain. Kent’s Cavern (+ 2 other articles). Cur- rent Archaeology Vol. XXII No.10, pp. 12-21. No. 1417 Abstract: Summers, D. (no date) The Amazing Story of the Admiral’s Stalagmite. Bermuda-Caribbean Engi- neering Consultants. 14pp. No. 1418 Abstract: Home, D.M. (1865) Notice of a Large Calcareous Stalagmite Brought from the Island of Bermuda in the Year 1819 and now in the College of Edinburgh. Proc. Royal Soc. of Edinburgh Vol.V No.67 pp. 423-428. No. 1419 Mills, M.T. (1972) Original Cave Survey Notes on Caves of St Kilda, with Notes.17 pp. No. 1420 Abstract: Hendy, P. (2012) Cavers Rescuing Cavers. Mendip Times, Jan 2012, p.65. No. 1421. -8- 6.DVDS, VIDEOS ETC.:

DVD No. 45: BBC Alba (Gaelic programme) Visit to Uamh nam Iongantais Fior, Applecross. 46: Window Into Darkness (Sid Perou, no date) 47: Cave Rescue Practice, Argyll. BBC ‘Landward’ 8.10.11. 48: BBC Cave-related Features: Applecross, Landward. (2011) 49: Speleo Vertical. Andy Sparrow (2007)

Video No. 45: Window Into Darkness (Sid Perou, no date) CD The Great Cave of Smoo. Powerpoint Presentation (2011) CD Underworld of the Far North-West. BBC Radio 4 broacast from Cuil Dubh (1969)

------Book Review: In The Beginning Was The Name - Selected Essays. By Pro- fessor W.F.H. Nicolaisen. Scottish Place Name Society (2011) 392pp. ISBN 978-0-9565172-2-7. £12 + £3 p&p.

This is not a book about caves. In fact I don’t think they’re even mentioned, but it is a book that will be of interest to anyone who has looked at an Ordnance Survey map and wondered. Bill Nicolaisen has spent the past 50 years, from his appointment as the Head of the Scottish Place-Name Survey in 1956 at the Uni- versity of Edinburgh to the present, collecting, researching and thinking about place names. Not just their meaning but the who, the why and, more importantly, the when. The 33 essays in this book look at a wide range of aspects of place name study, from pure speculation to the practicalities of going out and talking to people.

Geographically they cover the whole of Scotland from Gal- loway to Shetland but with the odd excursion to his native Ger- many and USA. I would say don’t be put off by the seemingly academic titles of the essays, there is a lot of good reading here. For instance, ‘The Semantic Structure of Scottish Hydronomy’ is simply looking at the names of Scottish rivers and streams. Fascinating facts are here, like that on the 1” OS maps of Scotland there are 412 streams named after the colour of their water and eight named after taste and smell (not all nice either!) ‘Maps of Space - Maps of Time’ looks at how place names can help identify where the various Scottish peoples lived and overlapped both geographically and when, how aspects of one language were absorbed into another with time. Did you know that the oldest Scottish places are probably the names of large rivers such as Almond and Carron and these may even pre-date the Picts? All in all, a lot of good reading here for the wee sma’ hours or when you can’t get underground.

Further details of the book and an order form can be found at www.spns.org.uk/IBWNorderform.html It can also be ordered by post by sending a cheque for £15 (£12 + £3 p&p) payable to ‘Scottish Place-Name Society’ to: Dr Doreen Waugh, Celtic and Scottish Studies University of Edinburgh 27 George Square EDINBURGH EH8 9LD. Dick Grindley -9- Vale: FREDDIE BRANDON For a caving club the GSG have, over the years, collected a truly eclectic bunch of members, but no-one quite as extraordi- nary as Freddie Brandon, one of our hidden treasures.

A native-born Czech, he passed his teens in a land dominated by Nazi Germany but contrived, as only he could, to make a healthy living on the side smuggling black market food to places like Poland and succeeded in stuffing a large suitcase full of Reichsmarks. Alas, he just failed to convert these before they were supplanted by a new currency so that his fortune was left just about able to purchase a cup of coffee! In 1941 he was conscripted into the navy, a fact proudly known to the GSG who could boast that they had the only active UK member who fought on the German side in World War 2 - not only that but was the recipient of an Iron Cross and, I learnt at his funeral, a man who once stole Heinrich Himmler’s hat! (Wisely, he re- frained from trying to return it and quietly destroyed it instead).

When hostilities ceased - and when nubile young women in his district had all been used up - Freddie decided to quit his job in the merchant navy and hightail it to the West. Arriving in Scot- land, he took several jobs to support himself as a language student at Edinburgh University, a partially un-necessary exercise since he was a fluent speaker of German, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Freddie being zipped up in his oversuit by Russian and English. Thereafter he taught German in Edin- Malcolm McConville before a trip down Crackpot, October 1991. burgh schools until retirement in the early 1990s. Photo: Gordon Veitch His route into the Grampian came obliquely. Number one son Roger, keen on climbing from an early age, used to attend the brick climbing wall at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh where the late Iain Ogston was supervisor/tutor. The latter, being interested in caving as well as climbing, founded Edinburgh Cave and Crag who oft-times met in Freddie’s cellar (he, like me, had a house built on a steep slope). Inevitably, EC and C gravitated into the GSG, bringing Freddie with them, since he was a man thirsty always for new experiences.

For the next quarter century he and his beloved red Austin Healey Sprite sports car were familiar companions on club meets. Aprés-cave evenings were frequently enlivened by the production of bottles of some nameless fiery mountain liquor he had acquired on European holidays, quite often to the severe damage of lesser mortals’ brain cells. After his wife Dorothy passed away, Freddie relocated to South Queensferry and set up home with his second wife Sheila, where a few members would from time to time call in for a chat. Sadly, the final decade of Freddie’s life was marred by illness, but he was still able to breeze into the pub one Tuesday evening to announce his OBE - ‘The Old Bugger’s Eighty’!

From Latvia to Slovakia and Scotland to Australia, Freddie (short for Godfrey, an Anglicised version of his original name), lit up everyone’s life. His unflappable approach to life was irresistable and the club is going to be that much lonelier without him. As CJ graphically remarked: “A giant tree has fallen in the forest”. He passed away on Saturday 3rd December 2011, aged 86, having lived the real-life embodiment of a John Buchan hero. Our thoughts are with Roger, Gillian and Sheila and all inlaws and grandchildren. They have lost a pa- triarch. We have lost a friend.

“Go gentle into that good night” - and don’t crash the car again!

- Alan L. Jeffreys -10- THE GREAT SCOTTISH SPELEOTHEM MYSTERY? By Martin Mills

This unlikely tale of wanton deseceration starts on the other side of the world in Korea, Jeju Island to be more precise. When we attended the 13th International Symposium on Vulcanospeleology in September 2008, amongst an array of international speleologists attending was a charming ex-pat from Bermuda called David Summers. He is Chairman of the International Show Caves Association (ISCA) and appeared to have the en- viable task of jetting around the world from one international conference to the next, taking in en route show caves that are members of the association and endeavouring to persuade others to join. He owns the Crystal Caves of Bermuda which appears to be two show caves: Crystal Cave, discovered in 1904 and opened to the public in 1908, visited by over 85,000 visitors a year (Mark Twain, the American humourist was an early visitor) and Fantasy Cave, discovered in 1907, opened as a show cave under the name of ‘Wonderful Cave’ in 1912 until 1931 when it was closed, and re-opened to the public in 2001.

During our convivial evenings in the bar he soon became aware of our Scottish connections and told us a tale about a giant stalagmite removed from, we thought, his caves during the 19th Century and shipped to Edinburgh where it had been placed in a museum. He had even been to Edinburgh to repatriate it, but it had been disposed of! As ever, and especially not knowing anything about this tale, we thought immediately that it should be written up for the Bulletin. On pressing him for more details he said it had all been written up, but didn’t reveal where (see later). We even pressed him again when we returned to the UK but nothing further was forthcoming and the trail went cold. That was that we thought.

In November last I was reading/checking through a complete set of the US publication, Journal of Spelean History for other things, like you do, when I found a first mention, then later some more information, much later a photograph and in another US publication, a cave survey with some references. A trip to the National Library of Scotland completed what we had been able to uncover so far. Inevitably, while putting this article together I have now found the full detailed account by David Summers which was only published in 2009, ie the year after we met him (which source is readily acknowledged, especially as to the final outcome). This does save me repeating the full details, but a brief summary may be of interest.

In 1819 Admiral Sir David Milne entered a cave north west of Castle Bay, Bermuda, now known as Admiral’s Cave. This cave is described as about 180 feet long, 40-60 feet wide and in places up to 30 feet high. He knew of the island’s caves (currently there are approximately 150 known), had some knowledge of geology and was a friend of Professor Jameson of Edinburgh University who was then collecting specimens from every- where for its museum which was to become one of the finest in Europe. The Admiral removed various formations from the cave, including a giant stalagmite with dimensions of 11 feet 3 inches high, average base diameter of 2 feet 1 inch, mid height girth of 7 feet 4 inches and calculated to weigh nearly 3½ tons, shipped them to Edinburgh and presented them to the University Museum. However the giant stalagmite proved too large and appears to have lain in the vestibule of the Mathematical class-room.

An early account, written in 1864-65 says the giant stalagmite was removed from the cave by sawing it half way through, a nick was cut on the opposite side and it was then pulled until it fractured and was secured by strong tackling and shears to prevent it falling over altogether. However it is now known that sixteen one inch diameter holes varying in depth from four to eleven inches were drilled around the base of the stalagmite before the sawing was undertaken. It must have taken a significant effort to move the stalagmite uphill to the cave entrance, a couple of hundred feet distant.

Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne (son of the original Admiral) revisited the cave in 1863 and noted drops of water falling on the stump where the giant stalagmite had been removed and that there was already new stal growth. He carefully measured this, calculated the volume of new growth and timed the frequency and number of drips. His brother, David Milne-Home in his 1986-65 account, from these measurements and assuming a constant rate of deposition, worked out that the giant stalagmite would have taken 600,000 years to form, -11- before realising the shortcomings of his assumptions.

As a result of the Museums sequence in Edinburgh it would appear the giant stalagmite eventually found its way to the Royal Scottish Museum building in Chambers Street where it was dis- played in the north east portion of the museum main floor until 1973 when it was apparently overlooked as needing relocation during museum alterations and it was broken up and removed as builders’ rubble. The clear moral of this tale, if ever it were needed, is never remove formations from a cave!

References:

Forney, Gerald Glen. (1973) Bermuda’s Caves and Their History. Journal of Spelean History Vol.6 No.4, pp. 88-103,112. (October-December).

Milne-Home, D. (1886) Notice of a Large Calcareous Stalagmite Brought from the Island of Bermuda in the Year 1819, and now in the College of Edinburgh. Royal Society of Edinburgh Proceedings, Vol.5 pp 423-428. (Copy in GSG library)

Shaw, Trevor R. (1992) History of Cave Science: The Explora- tion and Study of Limestone Caves, to 1900. Second Edition. Pub. Sydney Speleological Society, pp. 278, 301. (Copy in GSG library)

Summers, David (2009) The Amazing Story of the Admiral’s Stalagmite. ISCA 5th Congress Proceedings. pp. 73-82. (Copy in GSG library).

[Editor’s note: I can certainly recollect this specimen being on display when I worked at the Museum in the 1960s and actually thought it might be myself in the photograph. However, closer inspection suggests it is more probably Joe Holliday, who worked in the geology department from the same time until the late 1970s and was an active member of the Group from 1962 to 1970.] ------oOo------GSG Publications: Back issues of the Bulletin may be purchased from the Editor (see inside front cover) at £2 per copy. Other publications on sale are [non-member prices in brackets]: Decades in the Dark (Jubilee History of Scottish caving) £20 (£22) Caves of Skye £6 (£8.50) Caving Songs of Mendip £3 (£4) Caves of the Southern Highlands £1.20 (1.50) Caves of Applecross and Kishorn £4 (£6) De Profundis [caving poems] £3 (3.50) Mines in Scotland £4 (£5) Appin Cave Guide Supplement £2 (£2.50 and photocopies of Caves of Assynt 2nd Edition £6 (£8.50) Caves of Schiehallion £3 (£4) Caves of Appin £1.50 (2.50) -12- GSG JUBILEE IN SLOVENIA 2011 By Ross Davidson

Among the events to celebrate the club 50th anniversary this year was a two week visit to Slovenia, which was attended by twenty two club members and their families, as well as being joined by cavers from other clubs. The group mainly stayed at Speleocamp Laze, although a trip to Croatia occurred in the middle weekend of the trip, which will be dealt with in a separate article. The participants were: Ross Davidson, Martin Hayes, Fraser Simpson, Mark Tringham, Uros Aksamovic, Dan Harries, Fiona Ware, Rosie and Tom, Bob Sommerville, Carol Dickson, Stuart Lindsay, Kate Stephens, Fraser Stephens, Julie Hes- keth-Laird, Eva Laird, Ross Laird, Hugh Penney, Dave Hodgson, Maeve Hodgson, Alana Hodgson and Taryn Hodgson.

The first day saw Yorkshire Dave, Maeve, Alana, Taryn, Hugh and Stuart Lindsay take a visit to the massive Rakov Skocjan do- line, where a col- cave walk lapsed cave makes a dramatic 50m deep hole with an impressive rock bridge spanning it. Myself, Fraser, Martin, Bob A section of the cave map for the area. Caves are shown as black dots . The cave walks are and Carol arrived in indicated by a medium wide grey line. camp that evening, and were surprised to meet several Swiss cavers on site who we knew from Meghalaya, as well as the group from Crewe Potholing Club who had arranged to join us. Once camp was established we made plans to combine some SRT practice for those needing to brush up on their skills with a visit to Jama Za Teglovko. This and many of the other caves that were visited over the course of the trip were located on the cave walk just outside Laze, easily reached on foot from camp. Jama Za Teglovko consists of a 20m pitch with a significant and well decorated section of fossil passage at the bottom, as well as quite an impressive array of animal bones. Further into the cave a nice gour covered slope reached via an awkward handline climb led down to some interesting dig sites, where clearly somebody had been enjoying a beer or two - some traditions are international! Meanwhile another group, including many of our younger contingent, carried on to explore some more of the cave walk. This long circuit takes in some very impressive scenery as well as quite a large number of caves and other karst features. The caves themselves are easily found from the ‘omega’ shaped markers placed on trees at points where you leave the path in order to reach an entrance, although many of the caves are right next to the path. The evening saw Fiona, Dan, Rosie and Tom arrive, having driven over- land over the course of the day.

Another highlight was a visit en masse to Rakov Skocjan, where some of the group made the abseil off the rock bridge, lowering equipment down on the rope, and in Ross’s case making the descent in Hugh Penney’s inflatable kayak! Others made their way down on the steep paths, the group re-assembling at the upstream entrance with various inflatable craft which they were set to make the voyage in along this 1.5km river cave. Unfortunately there weren’t sufficient craft to accommodate everyone and so the groups had to set off in waves. -13- The situation worsened when the boat lent to us by the MCG developed a leak at the far end of the cave, leaving Julie Hesketh to (almost) finish the trip with her thumb in the hole and eventually leading to a rearranging of boats with Ross then having to swim out (chosen by virtue of the fact that he was wearing a neofleece). An impressive amount of stal lined the passage, with several large gour landings requiring some fairly awkward portages. Fraser Simpson and a Belgian caver who’d joined us, Luc Funken, also explored an interesting side passage, again packed with formations.

Another cave visited on a number of occasions throughout the fortnight was Najdema Jama. Exploring the entirety of this system is a fairly extensive day’s caving, starting with some interesting SRT over a calcite covered slope and then down a 20m free hang after re- belaying off a stal column. The effort is rewarded by some stunning sights, not least among them being the river chamber at the end where proteus, troglo- bitic shrimp and isopods (white woodlice) were seen. On the initial visit Stuart Lindsay, not fan- cying the SRT, took a turn round some of the local karst and managed to find a 3m shaft that looked promising for digging (see separate account of this by Passage in Najdema Jama. Stu later in this issue). Photo. by Mark Tringham Mark Tringham completed the GSG contingent, arriving that evening. The meeting with some was brief however, as the Croatia team were heading off the next morning. Mark got underground the next day, being joined by Luc and a number of Swiss and Belgian cavers to visit Logarcek, another cave within easy walking distance from the camp. Again accessed by an initial pitch the cave develops more or less horizontally after this point, apart from a second pitch (stated in the guidebook as a possible handline, but definitely a pitch to us) after which the cave branches. Both branches were explored, again being visited by several groups over the fortnight. Of particular note here was the sound of trains passing on the surface overhead, as well as the enormous chamber in North Branch. Again a few proteus were seen en route.

Several visits to some of the impressive show caves, Skojanske Jama, Skotia Jama and Krizna Jama were made during the second week, the latter featuring a guided boat trip (although expensive at 55 euros), with Skotia Jama being described by Bob Sommerville and Carol Dickson as Tolkienian in scale and atmosphere! The last couple of days saw many members of the group finishing off various parts of the cave walk while Ross Davidson and Stuart Lindsay went and dug the shaft that Stu had located earlier, described in the article below. Mark Tringham and his guest Uros also took a guided trip into the major river cave Planinska Jama. This was mainly paddling in an inflatable boat, although there were one or two dry side passages Bob and Carol in Krizna Jama. which they explored, featuring some extremely im- Photo. Mark Tringham -14- pressive and well preserved formations. In the main part of the cave they saw literally hundreds of proteus, as well as rotting wooden bridges and other Italian army constructions dating from the 1930s. The Rak tributary opened into enormous passage; so large that it proved very difficult to photograph.

The trip was nicely rounded off with Julie and Ross hosting us for a superb meal at their house in Prem, featuring a couple of varieties of the local firewater which were particularly interesting and a desert kindly provided by Julie’s neighbour. Overall, this was a fantastic holiday with great weather - only one day of rain - lots of superb caving and surface trips and plenty of fun had by all! The photographs shown here are taken from the superb collection which was uploaded by Fraser Stephens and Proteus in Najdema Jama. Mark Tringham onto the GSG members’ Photo. Mark Tringham server - if you haven’t had a look at these already, doing so is highly recommended. We look forward to a return to this breathtaking part of the world. ------BOGLE CAVE, Clashmore, Sutherland. By Dick Grindley

For the past 3-4 years I’ve been trying to locate Bogle Cave somewhere near Clashmore on behalf of a Peter Aikman (request/query to Goon). The only record is in a letter written by a Clashmore crofter called Hugh Kerr who was involved in the crofting land wars of the 1880s. In 1887 he was being sought by army/police from Inverness and fled to the ‘Bogle Cave’ which he states was about one mile from his Clashmore croft. Kerr hid out in the cave for a few days and was supplied with food by his son (?) Over the years I’ve had a good look at the hillside around Clashmore for potential cave sites but have not come up with anything away from the shore line. Some time ago talking to an older inhabitant of Clashmore I was told of a potential sea cave but he couldn’t remember exactly where it was! This dinner weekend I had a good look at the Balchladrich Bay beach and the cliffs at either end. The cliffs at the northern end of the beach are too low and set back from the shoreline, not good sea cave country. To the south the fault lines run parallel to the cliff for 700m and the boulders at the base of the cliff appear to have more slid gently down the slope rather than sea action eroding into the fault in the cliff. View of Balchladrich Bay. Cave lies just beyond the point. At the 700m point there is obviously a fault running Photo: Dick Grindley into the cliff and a sea cave has been formed at NC 0267 2960. This cave is marked on the 1:50,000 2nd Series but not on the 1:25,000 OS map. My belief that this is Bogle Cave was added to after talking to a young lady from a croft at the south end of the beach. When asked if she knew of any sea cave you could get into at low tide she immediately described the above cave. At low tide a rock ledge is exposed that can be used to access the cave but to quote: “Be careful, it’s very slippy!” As the rain then changed from vertical to horizontal at this point I decided my arthritic knees had had enough and so left a final exploration to a young and fitter (or more stupid) member of the group. -----oOo------15- CROATIA ON THE SIDE By Ross Davidson

In the middle of our Slovenia trip a small subgroup headed across the border to meet up with some members of Speleoklub Samobar, returning the visit that some of their members had made to Scotland a few months previously. During that visit we were shown surveys of 500m deep caves, so were heading there with a mind to be doing some fairly serious vertical caving. As it turned out this couldn’t have been further from the truth. The caves we visited were closer to something you’d expect to find on Mendip! However they did present a few of their own challenges and made for a varied and interesting long weekend.

Arriving in Samobar we quickly found the youth hostel we’d booked into, where we had an entire attic room to ourselves. At the hostel we were met by Ivana, one of the group who came across to Scotland, and taken to a nearby bar for a refreshing beer. Unknown to us the Croa- tians had planned a barbeque, and after a further beer we were promptly driven off to the house of Kresimir, another of the UK group, where we were treated to a truly sump- tuous feast - plenty of beer, wine and Croatian schnapps. This was only the beginning of the great hospitality we were given in Croatia - buying anything for them in return required a great deal of insistence!

The next morning a few heads were a little less than clear, and the day proved eventful even before we got underground. Kresimir’s minibus, which had transported them across Europe a few months previously, gave up the ghost, spewing forth thick black oil from the water filler cap. Stuart’s van was on hand to tow it to the side of the road, where it was left until it could be picked up the next day. This would put most people into a bit of a downer, but did- n’t seem to dampen Kresimir’s spirits in the least. After a few phone calls another group of people appeared to whisk us off to our destination; it seems that everybody over there has an innate understanding of the importance of such a situation when you have guests - an emergency whilst pro- The barbeque at Kresimir’s house. viding hospitality to foreign cavers is clearly of the utmost Photo: Kresimir Motoĉić seriousness! The cave on the itinerary was Provola Jama, situated in the midst of one of the national parks of the area, for which at least two of our hosts work profes- sionally.

Provola is a very fine system on several levels with both active and fossil development to be found. The route we were taken on was a round trip, starting with a 20m entrance pitch into the middle (fossil) level and dropping down through some tightish rift and bedding sections to the active level. The cave was a great surprise to us as it was quite distinct from what we’d been doing in Slovenia, and much more like Mendip caving than any of us expected. There were plenty of formations to be seen, although while most were in good condition, it was apparent that conservation of formations is not treated with the same level of importance as in the UK. This is partly as they have something of an oversupply of well decorated caves, and partly as they don’t have a great number of cavers, so most get very little footfall. These factors mitigate this attitude to some extent, but there is a bit of a danger of creeping death in this complacency. One fine feature in the streamway was a pair of near intersecting curtains reaching down almost to the water, forcing passing cavers to get chest deep in the water to duck under it. At this point it became clear to us that Croatian cavers share our sense of humour, as the feature had been named The Bollock Washer. Many sections of the streamway required some sporting -16- aerial maneouvres, which added significantly to the thrill of seeing such a nice and varied cave. My personal adrenaline levels rose when I suf- fered a brief migraine, which has never happened underground before - exposed climbs when you are seeing stars is not something I’d recommend. Fortunately this didn’t last long and I felt fine by the time we were out of the cave, and even better when a picnic basket with a selection of breads, cheeses, paté, cakes and numerous other goodies appeared. Thus replenished it was back to the hostel for a shower and out on the town to top up our beer tanks.

Our second day commenced with us heading a bit Beginner Instruction - Croatia-style! Photo: Kresimir Motoĉić further afield, driving up through picturesque farmland and fruit plantations, eventually pulling up at a house used for caring for the elderly. The ubiquitous wood piles show that winters are quite harsh in this part of the world and our hosts informed us that much of the year is spent preparing for it, wood being harvested from some of the many walnut trees. The garden also featured lots of plum trees and vegetables, but of particular note was a rather substantial cave entrance. Dolaca Jama is for the most part a long tight rift, initially a little more open with a few bridging climbs, but after 200m reaching a point where it closed down quite significantly to make for some arduous caving. The closest parallel in the UK I can bring to mind are Dowbergill Passage in Providence Pot/Dow Cave, or certain sections of Eastwater Swallet. A few of our group gradually backed out in favour of absorbing some of the sunshine which was in plentiful supply that day, as well as some of the beer which had been brought along. Four of us (Julie, Yorkshire Dave, Fraser and myself) plus Tommy from Speleoklub Samobar went further into the cave. Fre- quently, constricted sections of the cave passage necessitated a change of level, making for a lot of climbing, inserting ourselves horizontally through high level eye holes and flat out crawling through puddles on the floor. After an hour or two of strenuous caving we crawled through a drained sump to reach a pitch for which we hadn’t brought any equipment, effec- tively marking the end of the cave for us. At the base of the pitch was a medium chamber, and Tommy told us that another two hours caving would have got us to the current limit of exploration, a wide open crosss-roads! This cave has the highest radon levels of any in this part of Croatia, and such tight caving is apparently fairly uncommon there. It is perhaps for these reasons that since two of his companions moved away from the area, Tommy hasn’t had anyone to help with the exploration. The Croatia team Naturally we volunteered with some en- Photo: Kresimir Motoĉić thusiasm!

On our last night we finally managed to make the Croatians allow us to buy them a meal. The restaurant they directed us to was in a location that frankly we would never have found on our own, but it proved to be well worth getting a little way off the beaten track as the food was terrific. Overall, Croatia is a beautiful and wel- coming country that I would recommend anyone to visit, especially as the guest of Speleoklub Samobar. We look forward to our return - better start dieting in preparation! Croatia Team members: Ross Davidson, Martin Hayes, Fraser Simpson, Bob Sommerville, Stuart Lindsay, Julie Hesketh-Laird, Dave Hodgson. -17- BOWDEN HILL - THE FINAL FRONTIER? By Alan L. Jeffreys My fixation to connect all Bowden Hill mine entrances into one continuous system led me this winter to revisit ‘Octopus Series’ at the termination of Hole 3, first entered in 1968 by Brian Reid, Carol Jeffreys and myself when a tight crawl was excavated on the left side and a series of boulder-choked voids explored.(1) The intention in 2012 was to re-examine its eastern extremities for possible routes toward Hole 2.

In early February, at my suggestion, Phil Lawley and Andy Bailey went up Hole 3 for a look. Andy penetrated the excavated squeeze (which defeated Phil!) but didn’t spend long beyond it. Therefore a return trip was or- ganised for the following weekend.

The intervening years have not improved my girth and, although following Andy through the flat-out squeeze would have been possible, I opted to smash out some of the rock floor, thus enlarging the crawl. A column of small mud cubes beyond spoke of my previous visit, but otherwise our inspection revealed absolutely no change and no leads. Oh, one interesting point. Well inside the very probably terminal south west choke (it was deemed prudent not to penetrate to the bitter end), I found some slender animal bones. Across this area a multitude of tree roots hang from the roof and in one place, rock splitting wood wedges are still in place. For the record, a sketch survey is shown which agrees completely with the 1968 version.

Thwarted, the three of us relocated to Hole 2 to re-check the rear cross-over passage for potential leads. There were none, so we continued, exiting through Hole 1, a far more complex and ruined area than I had remembered. For the choke-crawling enthusiast there is plenty of sport to be had here.

In summation, it seems that no viable connection still exists (if indeed it ever did), between Holes 2 and 3 so perhaps I should abandon my 48 year old quest! -----oOo----- (1) [Jeffreys, A.L.] Meet Note: Bowden Hill: Octopus Series. Bull. GSG 1st Series 3(4) (1968) p.24.

OCTOPUS SERIES Bowden Hill Limestone Mine Loose choke West Lothian animal bones here

Dug out crawl N

Fossil Cross-over oral link

to Hole 3 entrance 0 2 4 6 8 metres Scale Sketch survey Grade 1, 18.2.12 A.L. Jeffreys. -18- CAVE ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCOTLAND (3) By Martin Mills

When I started this occasional series, albeit only two Bulletins ago, Never did I think I might be spoilt for choice on how to perhaps follow the previous offering, hopefully logically. This time I could have gone in one of several directions. Attempting to visit some of the more accessible locations so as to verify illustrations has also raised its head. More retro caving!

However I have taken the easy option and whilst on the islands gone to that generally considered the most re- mote, St Kilda. I was tempted to do this for the last Bulletin but didn’t want to put a jinx on a long dreamed of revisit on Friday 8th July 2011 on a gloriously calm sunny day. This also disproved my previously stated view that a chance to visit the islands is probably only a once in a lifetime opportunity.

My original visit had been in June/July 1971 and an account of ‘Caves of St Kilda’ appeared in the February 1972 Bulletin, pages 25-31. This account was subsequently revised by me in February 1974, incorporating three more references, and appeared otherwise verbatim in ‘The Caves of Scot- land’ (1975) by Tony Oldham, pages 120-127 and subsequent versions, together with two illustrations. Later these accounts were supplemented by ‘More on Caves of St Kilda’ in the De- cember 1986 Bulletin, pages 11-17.

Apologies to anyone who thought this series was going to be all engravings etc. This time we again have a choice of six ‘modern’ drawings of five different caves on the islands. My choice is the only one not on the main island, Hirta; it is on Boreray, the second largest of the outliers some 4½ miles NE of Hirta, and the highest outlier at 1245 feet. We were fortunate to sail amongst the stacks on my latest visit.

Norman Heathcote visited St Kilda in 1898 and 99. The islands were still inhabited at the time and it would appear that in July 1899 men from Hirta agreed to row him the five or so miles to Stack Lee (564 ft high), so that he could climb it again, this time with his sister! This was the first ascent by a woman. They were late setting out from Village Bay and by the time they had descended from the stack the weather had changed and they were unable to make any headway in the row back to Village Bay. They sought refuge in the lee of Bor- eray and sheltered overnight in a large sea cave before rowing back the following morning.

This illustration is an image that conveys much more than most to me, the weariness of the body and that stale taste inside the mouth the following morning.

Not only did Heathcote provide the photographs and sketches that accompany his book, he also undertook the first satisfactory map of the islands for the Royal Geographical Survey. This indicates the ‘cave’ on the east side of Boreray.

From:Heathcote, Norman (1900) St Kilda. Longmans, Green & Co. xiii + 229pp. Reprinted 1985, Edinburgh: Rowll Press. pp [111] & end map, which source is gratefully acknowledged. The original size of the illustration is 152mm by 102mm with a caption “The night in the cave”. There is also a detailed account of the episode by Evelyn Heathcote: “A Night in an Ocean Cave” in World Wide Magazine, Vol.5 part 25, pp. [91]-96 (April 1900). -19- MALLORCA 2011 By Annie Audsley

At the beginning of October 2011 a small team of Derek Pettiglio, Ross Davidson, Roger Galloway and Annie Audsley visited Mallorca. As most of us had not made it on the club’s summer trip to Slovenia and felt the need to escape the early autumn gloom, this Spanish island seemed like a good option for a bit of sun, caving, swimming and canyoneering. We stayed in Port de Pollensa (in the highly recommended Apartments Las Velas - cheap, comfortable and with very helpful staff) which looked to be a good base for exploring the northern part of the island.

We had two guide books: one, 501 Grutas del têrmino de Pollensa, listed every cave and rock shelter on the Pollensa peninsula with grid references and surveys. The second, Caves and Canyons of Mallorca, by Dave Elliot provided detailed descriptions for a handful of good trips, interspersed with rants about the condition of the caves and the state of the world and society generally.

On the first day we thought we’d put off hiring a car and recce the local area on foot. We picked a fairly short and easy-looking cave (only 150m long) from 501 Grutas which also appeared to be only a short diversion from a walking route to a nearby beach. It seemed a perfect plan - a bit of caving followed by a swim. Yet somehow as we set off on the walking track we allowed ourselves to be diverted into going to the beach first (I can’t imagine how....) and then after going for a swim and eating our lunch in the sunshine we got temped away from cave-seeking again by the stunning ridge walk which we had seen on the View of the Cal Pesso Ridge Walk. way out. This jagged rib of limestone jutted out to Photo: Derek Pettiglio sea from the summit of Cal Pesso, the hill which dom- inates Port de Pollensa. After leaving the beach we scrambled up over razor-sharp karst and among vicious shrubs (both of which were to become all too familiar) to gain the ridge. We were boggled by the exposure at the top. While the south side of the ridge, which we had ascended, was relatively gentle and easy scrambling, the north side was a sheer drop of around 250m to the sea. After taking in the view for a while we set off along the ridge. It turned out to be as good as it had looked from below - an absolutely awesome scramble on perfectly frictionous rock, but surprisingly it didn’t appear to be very often frequented. Arriving at the summit at sunset we made a rapid descent to Port de Pollensa and staggered into the first bar that we came to.

The next day, determined not to be sidetracked, we set off directly towards the cave, Cova de Cal Pesso, which was somewhere in the southern slope of Cal Pesso. We had both a grid reference and a description of how to get to it so it should have been easy. However, after two days of scrambling about the steep slope in the heat with the spiky karst and evil shrubs taking their toll on our shins and our motivation, we realised it wasn’t so easy after all. The grid references in 501 Grutas turned out not to be on any grid that was known to the GPS and the terrain was so broken that it was impossible to see what was a cave entrance and what was just a gap between karst outcrops. Derek did locate the cave - at the end of the first day’s searching when the rest of us had already given up and headed down the hill. Unfortunately even though we thought we knew where to look, it eluded us again on the second day. We did find a few other small caves, one quite well decorated, all obviously more frequented by goats than cavers.

However, after our early disappointments the island did let us in on some of its treasures. We had a trip down another cave: Penya Rotja. Our main criteria for choosing this cave were that the description made it sound relatively easy to find (!) but we are also intrigued by the initial description: “Make no mistake this is an ex- -20- tremely unusual cave - there are very few places like this in the world!” The guide book went on to explain that it was basically a tectonic cave, formed by ancient earth movements, but had been extended by ‘ordinary’ cave formation into some large phreatic galleries. For the first part of the trip we were in the space between two folded layers of rock. The way led upwards from the entrance in the base of the cliff into a section of cave where both the floor and roof sloped quite steeply down to the right. After working our way forward between spectacular formations, the roof becoming increasingly thick with helictites, we reached a point where we could get down the slope to the lower part of the cave. We slid down in a more or less controlled manner to a large stal boss at which point the slope had become steep enough to require a rope. Continuing on from here the Ross Davidson rigging pitch in Penya Rotja. slope continued to steepen until we were de- Photo: Derek Pettiglio scending a vertical rift, which also became tighter so that the last part required some determined wriggling to get down.

A little way along, the rift ended in a 25m pitch, coated in organ-pipe type formations. These made the descent interesting as it was impossible to avoid touching them with your feet on the way down, producing a sound like enormous wind chimes. At the bottom of the pitch was a large phreatic gallery which was similarly well endowed with calcite, forming many interesting obstructions which had to be climbed over or squeezed through. All in all an excellent trip.

We had descriptions for several canyoning trips on the island and we decided to try the Torrent de Pareis, which had the advantage that we could go up from the bottom and then back down, making it easy to do with only one car. This provided a really good day out. Climbing the canyon from the village of Sa Colobra on the coast we gradually left the tourists behind as the climbs became more chal- lenging. The canyon was like an enormous playground of beautifully sculpted limestone. We continued to a little beyond the confluence with the Gorg Blau at which point the canyon became more of a gravelly walk and we turned round. The whole trip took probably about five hours but we weren’t nearly bored of climbing over boulders by the end and would do it again any day. The only sour note to Roger Galloway in the Torrent de Pareis. the day was getting totally fleeced for parking in the only Photo: Annie Audsley car park in Sa Colobra.

We also had a couple of days walking, taking in small caves from 501 Grutas and different beaches. There is much more to be seen and done in Mallorca than we had time for, both underground and on the surface. There looked to be excellent climbing and walking and the taste of caving and canyoning that we had was enough to convince us that it would be worth going back for more. As for night life, we didn’t venture as far as Magaluf, but there were the Rod Stewart and Elvis impersonators at the local ‘British Bar’ to keep us entertained! -21- WATER OF LEITH ‘CAVE’? By Alex Latta

The following text was found recently on the internet and may be of some interest.

“According to tradition, St Bernard’s Well near Stockbridge in Edinburgh was re-discovered by three Heriot’s schoolboys while fishing in the Water of Leith in 1760. Legend has it that it was originally discovered by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order, in the 12th Century. After being poorly received at court, and suffering from a sickness, he went to live in a cave near the Water of Leith. There, he was attracted to the spring by the birds which visited it and he drank its healing waters until his strength returned. In September 1760 the mineral spring was covered by a small wellhouse. ‘Claudero’ (James Wilson), the con- temporary poet, composed a eulogy for the occasion:

“This water so heathful near Edinburgh doth rise which not only Bath but Moffat outvies. It cleans the intestines and and appetite gives, while morbfic matters it quite away drives.”

Chemical analysis revealed that the water was similar to the sulphur springs at Harrogate in Yorkshire. The mineral well soon became a popular resort for those afflicted by the fad for ‘taking the waters’. By 1764, the well was so great an attraction that accommodation in the Stockbridge area was at a premium during the summer season. It seems that habitual drinkers of the waters must have had cast iron constitutions, for one later visitor likened the flavour of the water to ‘the washings of foul gun barrels’. In August 1788, the well was bought by Lord Gardenstone, who claimed he had derived great benefit from drinking the waters and, in 1789, the present construction, a circular Roman Temple, was commissioned by him. This elegant architectural structure in the form of a Doric rotunda is inspired by the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli in Italy. Under the lead dome stands a marble statue of Hygieia, Goddess of Health. In 1885 the well and grounds were purchased by the publishers Thomas Nelson and Sons. After restoration, it was left to the City of Edinburgh. The pump-room was refur- bished in lavish Victorian style. The interior was designed like a celestial vault sparkling with sequin-like stars when sunlight strikes through the stained glass windows. The white marble pedestal is inscribed BIBENDO VALEBIS (By Drinking You Will Be Well). The revitalised well remained popular until its closure in 1940, following the outbreak of war. Remarkable claims continued to be made for its medicinal properties, ranging from the efficacy of a regular morning glass as a tonic for the system to a complete cure-all for rheumatism and arthritis. The temple then resembled a continental cafe with ‘little tables where regulars chatted with friends’. Aerated water from the well was even bottled and marketed for a short while.”

Editorial Note:

A mention of the same cave site was found by myself in 1989 in a volume entitled ‘A Sketch of St, Bernard’s’ by John Turnbull Smith (1907). In that book it is stated:

“...It is said that while preaching the Second Crusade in France and Germany, St. Bernard was advised to go to Scotland as a country rich in faith and fighting men. He was disappointed with his reception at court. In grief, aggravated by ill-health, he withdrew and lived in a cave in the neighbourhood of the Spring (at Stock- bridge). There was certainly a cave of considerable dimensions in the steep cliff to the westward. Its entrance was covered up by the building of the wall that bounds the back of Randolph Crescent but when it formed part of Lord Moray’s grounds, the boys of Stockbridge knew the cave well’.

(reproduced in GSG Bull. 3rd Series 1(1) (1989) p. 19).

To be picky, I would say that the alleged site is due south of St Bernard’s Well and on the east slope of the Water of Leith. It would be interesting to learn whether any traces remain. -22- YET ANOTHER WALLACE’S CAVE By Ivan Young

Examining the list of Scottish caves could lead a reader to suppose that Scottish leaders of the past were keen speleologists. With Caves of Scotland (1) listing over twenty named for Prince Charles (the 18th century one), Robert the Bruce or William Wallace this would be an easy mistake to make. Any caving activity was, however, usually enforced by pursuing enemies rather than a result of scientific or sporting interest. A healthy doubt also attaches to many of the alleged caving visits especially for Wallace. The Caves of Scotland list of seven for him is not complete, a literature search by John Crae found eleven and the total known to the GSG was recently and serendipitously increased by one.

GSG member Norman Murphy, while examining an 1850’s map (2) for Garleton Castle, spotted a Wallace’s Cave marked on Craigy Hill just south of the castle. Craigy Hill is one of the Garleton Hills, a low range of volcanic hills rising to 186m just to the north of Haddington, East Lothian. They were quarried for whinstone in the past and there was a 19th century haematite mine at their western end.(3)

Recent maps show no cave on Craigy Hill and initial enquiries of other GSG members found nobody who’d heard of it - not even Jim Salvona. My first step was to look at other old maps. On the 1893-4 1:2,500 OS map it was just marked ‘cave’ and this continued through to a 1957 1:10,560 map. The 1965 1:2,500 map lost the ‘cave’ but retained the markings that indicated one. On more recent maps the markings for the crags have been redrawn and nothing remains to mark the cave site. So was it still there or had it collapsed or been filled in? I decided to check, and calculated the NGR (National Grid Reference) from the later maps. They appeared to have the better detailing and, I falsely assumed, would give an accurate position. I was mistaken.

A few days later en route to East Linton I had a few minutes to spare, so when I left the A1(T) dual carriageway at the second Haddington junction I followed the minor road north through the Garleton Hills. I found a parking space south of Craigy Hill where a track heads west to the old whinstone quarry on Skid Hill. From there it was only a few minutes to reach the low crags of Craigy Hill where the cave should have been. It wasn’t visible from the bottom so I quickly circled round to where the map showed it near the top. It wasn’t there either and looking at the ground it had never been. With no time for a wider search I retired defeated.

Three new pieces of information then appeared. John Crae found a first-hand reference to Wallace’s Cave, GSG member Bob Sommerville remembered friends visiting it when he was a lad living in Haddington, and I compared the position on the 1850’s map and found it different to that on the later maps that I’d used to calculate the NGR. All were good reasons for another visit.

After the 2012 GSG AGM on 4th February John and I drove to Craigy Hill, looked around where the older map placed the cave and soon found it. It is in the top of a 3m high crag that I had walked beneath on my first visit. We quickly surveyed the cave, then, as we photographed it to death, were joined by Goon and his camera. Afterwards we joined Goon in a search for the Haematite Mine, but the entrance was filled in many years ago and Goon’s memory of his visits in the 60’s was too hazy to locate the site. A later literature and map search did find the location and a visit is planned.

Description

Wallace’s Cave starts as a 2m deep cleft in the bedrock then a lowering cavity continues for another 2m. It can be entered by dropping into the cleft from above, by following a ledge from the west or possibly by crawling through from a ledge to its east if you are a pre-teen. The cave appears to be eroded in a small localised region of more friable rock and is only large enough to shelter a single person. Possible plus points are its fine view to the north and east, and shelter from southerly and westerly winds: not enough, I suspect, to make it a popular caving destination. -23-

Roger Galloway on last pitch, Penya Rotja, Mallorca. Photo: Derek Pettiglio

Dining-in Night at Taigh nam Famh, Clockwise from left: Peter & Ann Reynolds, John Crae, Bob Jones, Martyn Elwell, Andy Peggie, John Heathcote, Mark Gallacher, Preston White, George & Jackie Sutherland, Carol & Julian Walford, Peter Dowswell, Rosemary Jones, Mike Todd, Tamlin Barton, Martin Hayes. Photo: Ivan Young -24-

“Thou shalt not be afraid.....for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” The sad remains of our old Knockan hut after the mid-December gales, 2011. Photo: Peter Dowswell

Ivan Young looking out of Wallace’s Cave, East Lothian. February 2012. Photo: John Crae -25-

The dig in The Palatial Abode of Edward Concretehead, Uamh an Claonaite; a possible route back to Claonaite 5 or 6. Julian Walford below, Bob Mehew at the top. Photo: Ivan Young.

Julian Walford in San Juan Lava Tube VII Entrance, La Palma. Photo: Bob Jones -26-

Entrance to Smoo Cave, Durness. Photo: Martin Mills

The winning Uamh nam Fior Iongantais team collect the J-Rat Digging Award in Priddy Hall, November 2011. L.-R. Martin Grass, Ritchie Simpson, Jane Stewart-Bollen, David Morrison, Toby Speight, Stu ‘Mac’ MacManus. Photo: Ivan Young -27- Location

To calculate the location of Wallace’s Cave from maps that predate the introduction of the national grid, and then find that position in the field with a GPS receiver is not as straightforward as it sounds. I’ll de- scribe the process in some detail as it illus- trates why the OS recommend that surveyors do not use the national grid if they want the best results!

Victorian and later maps can be found on the Old-Maps website (4). Entering the NGR of Wallace’s Cave as the search coordinates results in a list of maps that cover the area and can be examined. It is Portion of the OS 6” - 1 mile Map, Sheet 10, 1853 possible to do a screen capture and import showing cave location sections of the maps into a graphics program - I use Paint Shop Pro. I captured an area about 700m square for each of the several maps and overlaid the old 19th century maps on a later 20th century map which had the National Grid on it. Doing a best fit of the old onto the new allowed the NGR of Wallace’s Cave to be calculated for both the 1853-4 and the later maps. They differed by about 23 metres (see Table 1).

The position of the cave entrance measured by my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx lay between the two OS positions (Table 1). That isn’t the best NGR possible from the GPS measurement. The National Grid is based on a tri- angulated backbone and that contains measurement errors that deviate it from a perfect grid. Fitting a two dimensional grid to a three dimensional globe also introduces errors. All these errors are known and can be allowed for - but not by any of the usual GPS receivers.

To locate a measured point as precisely as possible on an OS map the OS supply an on-line converter. For best accuracy this takes coordinates using the European Terrestrial Reference System 1989 (ETRS89). This probably isn’t an option on most GPS receivers, but if you don’t need sub-metre accuracy then WGS84 coordinates will be adequate. WGS84 is referenced to the USA, and the steadily widening Atlantic due to continental drift introduces an error increasing at about 2.5cm per year for the UK. Since the GPSmap60CSx only has WGS84 it uses that to display latitude and longitude. This can be done at any time before or after taking the measurement.

The Ordnance Survey’s Coordinate Transformer (5) can be used to convert from WGS84 to NGR. To use it se- lect Great Britain for the region then fill in the form that appears with the latitude and longitude. The output

Table 1 - The various positions of Wallace’s Cave, Craigy Hill. -28- -29- is a NGR that can be plotted directly on an OS map. For Wallace’s Cave this gave a NGR that was 5m further north than the NGR calculated by my Garmin and given in Table 1. This difference represents the deviation of the local grid from the mathematical ideal.

The cave position can be checked by zooming into the measured WGS84 lat/long on Google Earth. When I did that, the location was within 2m of two light coloured rock outcrops on the overhead view separated by a darker line which is the cleft of the cave entrance. Taking the lat/long from Google Earth for the entrance and passing it through the OS’s converter gave the actual NGR as NT 51012.6 76553.2.

So what is the true position of the cave entrance? The OS recommend that positions are stored as ETRS89 co ordinates because it is a more precise system, but for practical use in the UK it has to be the NGR that is published. If it is to be plotted on an OS map then Wallace’s Cave is NT 51013 76553 as given by the converter from the Google Earth position, but if you want to enter it into your GPS receiver as a waypoint then it is NT 51013 76548. The difference is only 5m in East Lothian and is in fact better than the claimed accuracy of 7m for features on 1:25,000 OS maps. It is higher in other parts of the UK. I have found it to be 10m in Assynt and it could well be a bit higher elsewhere. In just about all cases it won’t matter which NGR is used, and it is simpler to publish the coordinates as reported by a GPS receiver. Please note that I have not attempted to factor in the accuracy of the Google Earth mapping or several other error sources. I am just pleasantly surprised by how well the various sources do agree.

References (1) Oldham, Tony (2004) The New Caves of Scotland pp. 71-72.

(2) 6” sheet No.10 East Lothian Series 1853, Ordnance Survey

(3) Baird, Bill (1999) The Garleton Haematite Mine. East Lothian Life No.31, pp. 26-27. rep. in GSG Bull. 3rd Series 5(3) (2000) pp.13-17. [with extra photographs and plans]

(4) Old-Maps historical map archive - http://www.old-maps.co.uk

(5) Ordnance Survey Coordinate Transformer - http://gps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/convert.asp ------oOo------NOTES ON WALLACE’S or GARLETON CAVE (possibly Uabh an Bhuaile), Craigy Hill, Garleton Hills, near Haddington By John Crae

This cave appears as ‘Wallace’s Cave’ on OS Map 6” = 1 mile, Haddingtonshire, Sheet 10, 1853, south of the remains of Garleton Castle. It does not appear on the 1893 map but reappears on the 1906 OS map as ‘cave’.

An old song refers to ‘The bonny parks of Garleton, their name ye ken, their name ye ken, that lie beneath the hanging crags, where Cogtal’s gentle waters rin....’ The ‘hanging crags’ suggest an overhang at least where the cave may perhaps be located.

The etymology of the name Garleton suggests a town on the rough side of a hill from Gaelic (Garbh - rough and Leth - side) and Scots (ton - town or farmsteading). Wallace is assumed to be William Wallace who fought against the English in the Scottish Wars of Independence but may also be a corruption of Buaile meaning fold (from Easan Bhuaile1) hence Uabh an Bhuaile (cave of the fold; aerial photographs show what appears to be a fold in the rock but this is not visible on site). The Cogtal Burn which rises east of Craigy Hill and bisects ______1. John Milne, ‘Gaelic Placenames of the Lothians’, Wallace’s Cave or Cleugh, is from Easan Bhuaile meaning Little Burn of the fold. Hasan, little burn, with ‘an’ changed to ‘s’ instead of ‘ie’; buaile aspirated, fold. Cave, if Gaelic, is cabh [sic. uabh] (‘bh’ equal to ‘v’), hollow, and cleugh is a ravine eroded by a burn. -30- the parish of Athelstaneford might possibly translate as Cuckoo tail burn but is more likely the burn at the tail of the wedge (old Scots).

An even less likely association with Wallace could be through the Seton family. The Setons of Garleton and Winton were, in the 17th century, connected to William Wallace, the master mason who built Winton House. It is remotely possible that he also worked at the quarries at Garleton.

None of the above Wallace associations are convincing. There are no direct historical connections between Wallace and a cave near Haddington and although many sources refer to Wallace in the Lothians (the Wallace family had estates at Stenton, near Dunbar), most of his actions took place further west. Gaelic usage in the Scottish Lowlands is debatable at best and there are no documents or physical evidence to suggest the later William Wallace as mason at Garleton.

Charles Rogers in ‘Wallace’, 1889, vol.1 p. 304, listing places associated with Wallace, quotes an earlier 1856 pamphlet by Sir Patrick Yule 2 which states ‘In the county of Haddington, there is a cleft in a rock near Garleton called Wallace’s Hole or Cave....’ The index of Rogers’ book refers to the cave as Garleton Cave. The cave is briefly mentioned in the ‘Autobiography of Samuel Smiles LL.D.’3, 1905, p.15, which mentions his child- hood in the Garleton Hills near Athelstaneford where ‘he played at patriotism in Wallace’s Cave’ with bows and arrows.

No report is made of any caves in the parish of Haddington in the (Old) Sta- tistical Account and a more complete account to be found in the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Vol.1 (1792) (p.40) makes no mention either. There is also no mention of the cave in the New Statistical Account or Third Statistical Account. The Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland Inventory (East Lothian, p.10, no. 15, v. SW (unnoted), 31 May 1913) lists a (supposed) Hillfort at Craigy Hill: ‘Some 333 yards ENE of Skid Hill in elevated rocky plateau with very steep sides rising to 500 feet above Entrance to Wallace’s Cave, Craigy Hill, East Lothian (John Crae for scale) sea level...’ and continues: ‘On the Photo: Alan Jeffreys northern side of the top of the rock is a small cave, which the people in the lo- cality associate with the name of Wallace’.

Smiles’ account is first hand but from memory, and does not give a detailed description of the cave. Rogers’ account is not first hand but quotes Yule who probably visited (the description of a cleft in the rock sounds like a first hand description). ‘SW’ who wrote for RCAHMS presumably also visited as he provided a detailed description of the supposed hillfort at Craigy Hill (not included here). Later visits by RCAHMS staff (for CAN- MORE) confirm the evidence of quarrying but do not mention the cave. CANMORE dismisses the supposed hillfort on Craigy Hill as the result of quarrying but does not mention the cave. ______2. From pamphlet 19pp, ‘Traditions etc, respecting Sir William Wallace’, 1856 by Sir Patrick Yule of Edinburgh.

3. ‘The Autobiography of Samuel Smiles LLD’ ed. T. Mackay, London 1905. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Smiles: Samuel Smiles (1812- 1904), Scottish author and reformer. -31- POSTSCRIPT: GARLETON HAEMATITE MINE By Alan L. Jeffreys Unfinished business was cleared up at the end of February 2012 when the writer took time out to more thoroughly search for the iron ore mine first visited by the club in May 1965 and again in June when a terminal choke at the far end of the canal was deemed impassable despite a void being discerned at the top (1,2)

My memory from that time was that we parked just before Craigy Hill and walked westwards to the mine, but when I assayed this route after our look at Wallace’s Cave in early February, I turned back about half way along due to changes in the landscape which made the place unfamiliar. After some old maps and geological data were studied, it was clear the mine lay further west than I had remembered, so on Saturday 25th February I went down the A 6137, parked in the car park for the Hopetoun Monument, skirted the south side of the wooded hillock there and on reaching open ground, walked due south up to the top of the next ridge where a narrow strip of young trees marked the site of what, in 1965, had been “two open trenches about twenty feet deep, which are presumably collapsed portions of the original mine”. (2) Descending to a green track on the far side of this ridge I quickly relocated the rocky entrance we had used, at NGR NT 504 758. Changes seemed very slight: a lot more undergrowth and the steep approach slope was now the repository of mounds of mown grass and other agricultural debris but at the foot of the rock face, there seemed to be an opening which could be enlarged to gain entry. Examination of the line of young trees revealed two or three very shallow depressions and a shakehole, all that remains of the deep trenches referred to above.

Access could more easily be gained using the green track which runs straight to the A 6137, but a complex of industrial buildings housing ‘East Lothian Produce’ straddle the exit so it is not recommended. My own route involved passing a series of electric fences designed to corral horses and cattle.

(1) Bull. GSG 1st Series 2(3) (1965) p.3. (2) [Jeffreys, A.L.] Meet Note: Garleton Iron Ore Mine. Bull. GSG 1st Series 2(4) (1965) pp. 4-6.

Left: The entrance to Garleton Haematite Mine 2012.

Right: As it looked in June 1965.

Photos: A.L. Jeffreys

Sketch Survey of Garleton Haematite Mine

PLAN open

unstable canal boulder trench Rubble choke Entrance boulder bridge SECTION ? Entrance slope

canal

Sketch Survey A.L. Jeffreys 1965. This survey was first published in GSG Bull. 1st Series 2(4) p.6 -32- JUBILEE DIGGING IN CROATIA By Stu Lindsay

It is always nice when you are celebrating a special birthday or jubilee to have something a bit more material to remember it by. Having returned to caving after my fairly long holiday, decades as opposed to weeks, I am less inclined to go on the gung ho trips. My first expedition SRT event for over 25 years was to Jama Za Teglovko. It ‘worked’ but highlighted the need for more work on my rig, so where better to test and modify it than a trip to Najdema Jama. After improving it in the, tight for SRT, entrance pitch, I then had the time to have a root around the area and see if there were any potential dig sites, whilst the rest caved. The attitude of the locals leads one to believe there may be the odd gem undiscovered but they were not really interested in putting in an effort to the likes of Rana, Campbells and Toll Radain in Assynt, or Cairn Hill, Home Close or Templeton on Mendip.

Remembering Yorkshire Dave’s comments to the kids, “You don’t want to go wandering off the path in the forest, you might fall down a hidden hole”, I adopted a piece of old hazel as a walking stick, with which I could prod suspect areas. After a couple of hours ferreting around in six likely spots, all looking to have potential, the need for a chainsaw became of paramount importance because a foot (30 cms) or so down a woven net of roots 5cms thick usually barred the way - probably why the locals do not persist. After an hour or so my wanderings led me in the direction of my van and the teapot. Alas, en route I noted an area off to the right about 20m up the slope next to a depression I had earlier probed. Maybe the higher outcrop with less trees would have less roots. Oooops! Just a metre off the path my stick disappeared up to half its length (entry a foot or so to the left or right off the path and I would have missed it). Dropping to my knees I could push the stick fully a metre downwards and waggle it about.

My first thoughts were “Wow”, then “Am I actually kneeling on a vegetation-covered abyss?” With caution thrown to the wind I began tearing at the web of roots and leaf mould. It was less than 15cms thick, the roots a mere1cm thick parted easily and slowly a black hole appeared through the 10cms hole I had created. I peered into the dim light and my heart pounded, it looked like a metre diameter shaft. I cleared more of the surface to reveal a tri- angular entrance hole in pale limestone maybe half a metre across. Poking my light in it looked disappointingly shallow, maybe only -2 metres. I remember sit- ting back, looking around me and thinking “If only I was in Assynt or Mendip” there would be a queue to investigate this.” Closing my eyes for ten seconds or so to adapt to the low light I again peered into the hole and with my camera took a picture. There did seem to be a way on through a small slot on the side which was closest to the path (west) and maybe a further half metre or so deeper. I returned to Najdema Jama and heard distant voices Ross went in with his kit on! from below so left a message at the cave Photo: Stu Lindsay entrance: VAN and an arrow made of sticks, to let them know where I was. With the late hour I decided to make a flask of tea for the lads and returned to the cave. Yorkshire Dave was already out and pointing to the sign asked if I was a boy scout! Tea and biscuits over I jokingly said to Ross Davidson, “Keep your kit on as I have found a new one and you just might fit in it.” And he did, just, although removal of some of his kit was necessary to exit. He explained that there was a ledge about two metres down with a hole he couldn’t quite see into but it looked to be clear for maybe a metre below that. The ledge was a false floor of debris or rock -33- with maybe similar conditions down at the bottom level. We took pictures and returned to Speleo Camp.

The benefit of a large white van that carries a multitude of ‘goodies’ is that almost any event can be accommo- dated, except one, provision of a scoop. The next visit was a solo by your scribe. The entrance would need a little bit of modification. It had to be big enough to accommodate a digging bucket, and of course Stu! Armed with an SDS drill and full ‘Mendip style’ capping kit, on the 9th August I completed the deed. In hindsight one more cap would have made it truly big enough, but it is open sufficiently to make it functional but awkward. Later I had a word with Ross to see if he would like to see what the potential was, maybe a couple of hours digging in the evening after a day time trip? So on the 10th August, whilst the others went off caving Ross sacrificed himself to the cause and accompanied me. After this first digging session a few feet were gained and it was obvious the shaft had been bigger at one time, as the walls and blockages were sheets of stal up to 5cms thick. The blockage was removed just enough to get into the lower level, Ross having the honour of this work whilst I hauled out the bags of spoil. The highlight of the session was the retrieval of Willie the WORM, at more than 60cms (two feet) and with a knot in his body. I quipped “Maybe the The dig at the bottom of the shaft. knot is to remind him not to fall Photo: Stu Lindsay down the 30m pitch!” The first day’s digging certainly whetted the appetite but although I had a spade, what was needed was a trowel -type digging implement, of which there were none in the van.

The first day of four hours saw 26 bags and more than a dozen lumps of stal and rock removed. The second day’s digging, armed with a robust flower pot nicked from Frank and Barbara’s storage area in the Speleo Camp, Laze, was more fruitful. It became apparent the dig was in a water modified small rift, some two metres long, the lower part about 20-40cms wide. It had been heavily calcited, maybe the second stage of development before a third major stage stripped the calcite from the walls causing blockages as it filled with mud? It made progress difficult. At one point out came the Troglodyte hammer, and using deeper than normal holes with a brand new drill bit bought hours before on the way back from Prem and a cocktail of powerful caps (no time for pussy footing around) , a few breeze-block sized rocks and calcite slabs were destined for the spoil heap as a comfortable working space 30 cms wide was engineered.

Everything in Slovenia is oversized, so after the ‘monster munch lunch’ and a cup of tea, work resumed in the enlarged space, bag after bag and rock after rock followed, with an impressive spoil heap rising above the surrounding vegetation. Soon a second heap commenced. This dig is close to the path so low profile heaps are more in keeping with the topography; vegetation should grow through them. Progress was moving quite quickly now, and time flew by as Ross had the bit between his teeth. Bags were flying out of the hole at a rate unseen at any time in the past couple of days. “What about the pizzas, Ross?” I ventured (it was past 1830 hrs on the last night and a pizza celebration and beers were ready in Logatec). “Not worried about a pizza, I’ll carrry on here for a bit. What about you?” “Not really fussed” I replied, and up came another bag, then another but more slowly and another. “Maybe I should have a turn Ross?” -34- So out popped Ross, with a real champion’s stint under his belt. I realised we were close to leaving the hole, and Laze, soon, maybe for a long time so I decided to dig like crazy. It was like the Caine Hill Rift, dig a space down about two spits to get both feet into, turn 180° and do the same again, then dig out the bit left in the middle, trampling soft mud underfoot so the next time it met the spade it was solid. Soon a good half metre was removed and one end, the ‘south’ end, looked promising. Hearing voices overhead I learnt that Ross had been joined by a couple of the team. It was Bob and Carol, looking for us! With sweat pouring off me, breathing becoming rapid having worked cramped and doubled up, but ignoring aches and knocks, I made up a few final bags and poked the spade easily down the south end close to the wall a good 50cms or so. Spoil here was definitely much softer. Under the east side at an angle downward it accepted the full length of the 40cms chisel but the visible floor was mud covering more fallen flat slabs of calcite, 5-7cms thick (a contributory factor to the cause Ross partakes of a ‘Monster Munch Lunch’ near the dig. of the blockages?) So, after a final look round Photo: Stu Lindsay and expounding the last of my energy on lump hammering the stal deposited in the floor I made my exit with a trophy of calcite spoil. It had been a good two days work, but what might another five or six hours have achieved? The way on did now seem to be gaining in width and was creeping under the remains of the ledge (now solid rock but a couple of metres lower). When originally passed, the ledge was found to be slabs of stal, their deposition and being jammed had caused the first constriction on this natural bulge.

Exiting for what was to be my last time I was indeed greeted by Bob and Carol. After a photograph or two exiting into the cool failing evening light I made way for them to take a peek, and remove the ‘time honoured token bag, bucket or rock.’ Bob in true spirit, probably managed one of the heaviest bags of the venture, and was impressed. Carol likewise did a bag, plus odd bits of rock, and would certainly dig it again. To end the venture Ross, whom it was getting harder to drag away (he would probably have dug till midnight), tidied up below. The bag total for the day was 34, with at least another dozen or more bag equivalents of rock manhandled out.

Earlier Fraser Simpson had donated a can of beer, in typical J-Rat tradition, to be left for the next team’ BUT, not knowing when or who that may be (and bearing in mind H&S and corrosion etc), in typical caving fashion we polished off the contents in celebration - but left the empty as a gesture of our good intent. At the very bottom of the dig a note was left in a bottle, declaring it to be a GSG dig of August 2011 and the hole was to be called Jubilee Jama. At minus six metres and going, not the deepest - blind pots and holes around the forest which are open to the surface are often as deep but go nowhere - but it is a dig.

The lump of stal removed was digging debris, and was brought back to the UK for closer examination. Your scribe, and the diggers, do not condone the removal of cave material, stal etc, unless it is part of the digging detritus and would become part of a spoil heap. The sample was sliced and shows the different layers of its formation.

At some point I would like to return to continue the dig. Maybe three or four sessions with two to three people would take it past -12m. Another ‘holiday’ to do the rest of the caves in the area anybody? According to Frank, it sits naturally between the two forks of Najdema Jama. If linked in it could make a super through trip!! And only four minutes from the road. ------oOo------35- LA PALMA 2011 By Bob Jones While on holiday in La Palma in November 2011, Bob and Rosemary Jones and Julian and Carol Walford visited two lava caves. The caves are very young (only marginally older than the GSG party), having resulted from an eruption in 1949. They are situated in an impressive lava flow which extends eight kilometres from the source of the eruption to the coast.

View of the San Juan Lava Flow L.-R. Julian and Carol Walford, Rosemary Jones. Photo: Bob Jones Full descriptions and surveys are published in the Canarian caving magazine Vulcania, which can be found at: http://www.vulcania.org/

Cueva Tubo Volcánica de Todoque LP/LLA-01

(Vulcania 2, pp. 18-22)

This 560m long volcanic tube is mostly of railway tunnel dimensions and was formed between 8th and 23rd July 1949. It is described as having twelve entrances, but with the exception of the main entrance, which is accessible via a short climb, these are small blowholes in the roof. There are fine displays of smooth ropy lava at the entrance and on the surface, but the interior is mostly razor sharp ‘aa’ lava with which it is advisable to avoid skin contact.

Carol and Julian Walford caving with walking poles! Tubo de Todoque. Cueva San Juan VII, Razor-sharp lava. Photo: Bob Jones Photo: Bob Jones -36- Cueva VII Volcan de San Juan LP/EP-19

(Vulcania 5 pp. 21-24 and 30-33)

Cueva VII has the appearance of a lava swallet and is one of a series of caves in the 1949 lava flow. Vulcania has a detailed description of the eruption, describing the appearance of a crack on 24th June followed by a strong explosion and violent tremor at 0430 on 8th July and the appearance of a one kilometre long and 100m deep crack. By 1400 the same day the lava flow had crossed the main road three kilometres downhill. The eruption ceased on 30th July leaving behind a trail of destruction and a series of lava caves. ------BOOK REVIEW: The Log of the Wookey Hole Exploration Expedition 1935, by Graham Balcombe and Penelope Powell. Rep. 2009 with additional material by the Cave Diving Group. v+ 233pp + 24pp of additional material by Duncan Price. Hardbound. ISBN 978-0-901031-06-8. £25.00.

In Descent No.211 p.27 (2010) I had read with interest that “The Log” had been reprinted. As I have an original I thought a comparative review might be interesting. Now that the club library has a copy of the reprint this has become practicable.

Firstly let us remember the 1935 edition. Towards the end of 1986 I wrote to Graham Balcombe seeking more information; he duly replied confirming there were 175 numbered copies, the original price was 7s 6d [37½p] and telling how they were laboriously produced by him by hand. Then in January 1987 through the post arrived an unpublished manuscript about the trials and tribulations of producing the book,which had been found, serendipitously, in his ‘archives’ after collecting dust for about fifty years. The MS was published, with permission, in Shepton MCC Journal Series 8 No.3 pp. 104-111 (1987). In the Editorial to that journal I recounted how I had first found the book in the early 1960s in Somerset County Council library, then in Mount Street, Bridgwater. Some years later I purchased a copy (mine is No.101) for £3.00. It has since turned into a much sought-after collectors’ item. At the Wigfest in Priddy Village Hall in November 2007, a copy achieved £600 in the auction. I have seen one more recently at an antiquarian book fair for £850! As an aside what effect (if any) does the reprint have on the value of the original?

Now to consider the 2009 reprint: Firstly it is not a facsimile, each line’s wording and paragraphs to each page do not exactly correspond but nothing is omitted. Overall there are two fewer pages. Inevitably the size had changed from folded foolscap to modern format. The photographs are the same size but matt finish rather than original photographic plates. Not all the surveys are true to size of the original. However, page numbering locations follow the original, ie, top corner or bottom.

What is interesting, and to be commended as wholly revealing, is that Duncan Price has produced the reprint from Balcombe’s file copy and incorporated his MS corrections, including the p. 47 survey (p.49 in the original), correcting the hachures as between water and rock, which were transposed in the original! and corrections to surveys on p.170, p.198-200 (p.200-202 in the original). I also noted one text correction on p.168. Also noted was the dive log sheet forms as between pp 175 and 177, 205 and 207, 209 and 211 have all had text lines transferred to the continuation sheet. In the original there was even a glitch in the page numbering, 54 should have been 55, which has now been corrected and appears as 53.

The additional material included in the reprint and arranged by Duncan Price, comprises: ‘Preface’ 3 un-numbered pages, followed by two un-numbered pages being the publisher’s (Graham Balcombe) advertisement/fliers promoting ‘The Log’ and a letter ‘To The Reader’ indicating typesetting errors. Over the years I have acquired an additional two varieties of a further advertisement/flier, including that in Wessex CC Circular No.11, dated December 27th 1935. ‘Afterword’ is 12 un-numbered pages corresponding to the MS previously mentioned and published in the Shepton Mallet journal, but this time dated 28.1.88. Incidentally this MS was also published with an introduction by Bill Mixon in the Journal of Spelaen History Vol.28 No.1 pp. [6-10] (Jan-Mar 1994) and which also revealed that there was an original of the 1935 Log numbered 176, advertised for sale in the CDG Newsletter and available through Graham Balcombe. ‘Epilogue’ is five un-numbered pages bringing the exploration of Wookey Hole up to date and what became of those involved in the 1935 expedition. Graham Balcombe died on 19th March 2000 aged 93. The final page is reserved for a song by Penelope ‘Mossy’ Powell, called “Pump....Pump” sung at the conclusion of the BBC live broadcast of the diving action in the cave on 17th August 1935. I note the political correctness of ‘boogers’ instead of the vernacular.

Overall unreservedly recommended; Duncan Price especially and the CDG for publishing are to be congratulated on this reprint. It even holds something for those of us who are fortunate enough to have an original.

Martin Mills. -37- ‘THE GREAT CAVE OF SMOO’ Amidst the Land of the Mountain and the Flood

By Kirsty and Martin Mills

Smoo Cave is situated on the north-west coast of Scotland at the east side of the village of Durness, in the county of Sutherland.

The Name Smoo is variously stated to be derived from the Icelandic word ‘smuga’, a hole or hiding-place, from ‘smúgja’ to creep, and from the Old Norse word ‘smjuga’ meaning a narrow cleft or creek. It is called ‘The Smow’ on Timothy Pont’s ‘Mapp of Strathnavern’ from the early 1600s and ‘Smon’ on the Earl of Morton’s Map produced by the Rev. Alex Bryce n.d. [c. 1744]. Sir Walter Scott called it Uamh Smowe in 1814 while the Military Survey of Scotland by General William Roy of 1847-55 indicates ‘Smoiu Cave’.

It had become ‘Smoo Cave’ by the time of Pococke’s tour in 1760 and as far as we know, this has been used by almost everyone since, the exceptions being ‘The Beauties of Scotland’ [by Robert Forsyth, Advocate] (1808) vol. V, p.156 where it is called ‘Smo’ or ‘Smoach’ and John Thomson’s map of Sutherland Shire published in Edinburgh in 1823 which indicates ‘Cave of Simoo’.

Depictions on Early Maps The cave, here called ‘The Smow’, is shown on Timothy Pont’s ‘Mapp of Strathnavern’ which is thought to have been drawn between 1563 and 1600/01, between his graduation from St Andrews University and his induction as a minister of the Church of Scotland at the parish of Dunnet in Caithness. Pont’s surveys were compass traverses of the rivers and valleys and he recorded the vast numbers of place names on his maps.

Only 36 sheets of his maps survived after his death but a number of these were used by Willem and Joan Blaeu for their ‘Atlas Novus’ which was published in Amsterdam in 1645. However Smoo (or Smow) is not indicated on their map as published although intriguingly it does show ‘A Holl of 180 Fathoms Deep’ towards the head of Loch Eriboll. Could this be the Allt Smoo stream sink or perhaps something else?

Pont walked the whole of Scotland at the equivalent of two counties per year to produce his surveys, a remarkable feat when you see the amount of detail he depicted. Contrast this with Roy’s Military Survey of nearly two centuries later which took 56 men eight years. -38- The Dutch mapmaker, Hermann Moll published ‘The Shires of Caithness and Sutherland with Strath Navern’ in 1725 which also indicates ‘A Hole of 180 Fathoms Deep’, also on the shores of Loch Eriboll, but in a slightly different place.

The Rev. Alexander Bryce, a minister in Thurso, Caithness, made a survey (with three assistants) in 1741-2 at the request of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. It is known as the Earl of Morton’s map and designed as a chart for seafarers. It carries the following inscription under the title ‘Rarities in Strathnaver’, No.4:

which reads: “To the East of Durness there’s a very large beautifull Cave called the Smon, after you have enter’d it theres an opening in the Rock like a door and within this a fresh Water Lock of great depth but ex- ceeding dark. Some of the inhabitants Scramble up to this Opening and fish Trout. What the extent of ye Lock may be (tho some have had the Courage to try it with a Boat and Candles) no body knows.”

Early Visitors and Descriptions Richard Pococke (1704-1765 an English priest and Bishop of Meath, was well-known for his travels and made three ‘Tours in Scotland’ in 1747, 1750 and 1760. He visited Smoo Cave during his 1760 Tour, when he journeyed from Portpatrick to the Orkneys. In a letter, written at Tongue and dated 1st July 1760, he records his visit describing the cave as 40 yards broad and 50 yards long and it may be 40 feet high. He mentions that a boat was some time ago put into the small lake found underground but does not detail the outcome. Pococke had also visited Postojnska Jama and Crna Jama (now in Slovenia) on 22nd July 1737.

Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster (1754-1835), MP for Caithness, instigated the ‘Old’ or ‘First’ Statistical Account of Scotland in 1790 when he asked parish ministers of the Church of Scotland to reply to 166 set questions on geography, climate, natural resources and social customs in their local parish. His aim was to ‘elucidate the Natural History and Political State of Scotland’. The returns were published, in the order they were received back from the different parts of Scotland and therefore with little logic, in 21 volumes between 1791 and 1799.

The account of the Parish of Durness (No. LXXIX in Volume 3, pp. 578-479), written by the Rev. John Thom- -39- son, contains the following extract:

“Caves, - In the cave of Smo, sounds are distinctly repeated by a remarkable echo. The cave is, indeed, in many respects, an object worthy to attract and engage the notice of a curious observer of nature. It is, in some places, 100 yards wide. The natural vault is about 70 or 80 yards in height. A short way within the mouth of the cave, there is a perforation in the arch through which a stream of water descends, and is received into a subterraneous lake, that extends backwards to a length that has not been ascertained. Tradition says that the only person who ever had courage to attempt to explore it was one Donald, Master of Reay, and that the ex- tinction of the lights, by foul air, obliged him to return before he could advance to the extremity of the lake, or the boundary of the cave. Many other caves, besides Smo, are scattered through the peninsula of Durness, but none so singularly remarkable, so large, or so magnificent.”

Sir Walter Scott visited on 19th August 1814 and called the cave Uamh Smowe or The Largest Cave. He also visited Staffa and Fingal’s Cave on 28th August 1814. In his ‘Diary of a Cruise in the Pharos’ in 1814, he de- scribes most graphically, but perhaps a little too imaginatively, his visit to the eerie caves of Smoo. [The following description is reproduced in Murray’s Handbook for Scotland (1894) p. 424]:

“We have now seen in our voyage the three grandest caverns in Scotland, Smowe, Macallister’s Cave [Spar Cave, on Skye], and Staffa; so that we may be supposed to know some thing of the matter. It is however, impossible to compare scenes of nature so different, nor, were I compelled to assign a preference to any of the three, could I do it, but with reference to their distinct characters, which might affect different individuals in different degrees. The characteristics of the Smowe Cave may in this case be called the terrific, for the difficulties which oppose the stranger are of a nature so uncommonly wild, as for the first time at least, convey an impression of terror - with which the scene to which he is introduced fully correspond. On the other hand, the dazzling whiteness of the incrustations in Macallister’s Cave, the elegance of the entablature, the beauty of its limpid pool, and the graceful dignity of its arch, render its leading features those of scarce and chastened beauty. Staffa, the third of these subterranean wonders, may challenge sublimity as its principal characteristic. Without the savage gloom of the Smowe Cave, and investigated with more apparent ease, though, perhaps, with equal real danger, the stately regularity of its columns forms a contrast to the grotesque imagery of Macal- lister’s Cave, combining at once the sentiments of grandeur and beauty. The former is, however, predominant, as it must necessarily be in any scene of the kind.”

He said of the cave’s location “The loneliness loaded my heart” but also “A Water Kelpie or any evil spirit of any aquatic propensities could not choose a fitter abode; and to say the truth, I believe at our first entrance, when all our feelings were afloat at the novelty of the scene, the unexpected splashing of a seal would have routed the whole dozen of us.”

The ‘New’ or ‘Second’ Statistical Account of Scotland was mooted to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1832. It differed from the ‘First’ Statistical Account in that it included maps of each area and the contributors included people other than the ministers of the Church such as local doctors and schoolmasters. Mostly written in the 1830s it was published in 52 quarterly parts from 1834, culminating in a full 15 volume set issued in 1845. This ‘New’ Statistical Account report on the Parish of Durness, provided by the Rev. William Findlater, in Vol. 15 p. 88 gives a brief description of the cave together with this footnote:

“After providing ourselves with a small boat and lights, and raising them over the arch, we found ourselves in a lake about 70 yards long and nearly as broad. We now lighted our candles and approached an arch in the rock, under which we could just pass by lying flat on the boat. This opened into a lake of equal length, but gradually diminishing in breadth.

Having at the upper end left the boat, we walked over the rock about thirty paces in the same direction. The height of the roof is various, from twenty to sixty feet, and its sides and bases are almost covered with stalactites and stalagmites, formed from the dropping roof of the cave, which is entirely composed of limestone. The -40- temperature of a well at the upper end we found to be 48° Fahr.”

Another distinguished visitor to the cave was Charles Richard Weld who in a highly entertaining journal of ‘Two Months in the Highlands, Orcadia and Skye’, published in 1860, wrote that he had visited Smoo in 1859 and having read Sir Walter Scott’s account, approached the cave with high expectations. While he thought the cave ‘a grand object’ he felt that had Scott visited Adlesberg Cavern [Postojna] in Carniola before he visited Smoo he would not have written quite so glowing of its wonders! But Weld did not make as complete an examination of the cave as Scott. The local boatmen were charging 15/- for the trip to the second chamber, and extra for lights! He decided ‘the game was not worth the candle!’

Professor M.F. Heddle was Professor of Chemistry at St Andrews University and President of the Geological Society of Edinburgh and persuaded the Government of the time (1855) to institute a Geological Survey of Scotland and he produced the first geological map of Sutherland. He also provided a detailed description of Smoo Cave in 1882.

Early Illustrations Smoo Cave is not nearly as well illustrated as Fingal’s on Staffa but the first notable engraving was done by William Daniell in 1820 entitled ‘Entrance of the Cave of Smowe’. Daniell visited Smoo as part of his ‘Voyage Round Great Britain’ which was published in eight volumes between 1814 and 1825. Daniell was a gifted artist and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1822.

Another illustration of the cave, clearly based on Daniell’s engraving, was published as the ‘Cave of Smo, Sutherlandshire’ in a supplement to the Saturday Magazine for October 1835, p.176.

‘Scottish Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil’ by Samuel G. Green D.D. n.d. [1880], published by the Religious Tract Society, shows ‘Smoo Cave, Near Durness; on the Northern Coast’ on p. 195. It is on p. 191 in the New Edition, Revised dated 1886. The engraving is the same but the text differs.

The oil painting reproduced in the GSG Bulletin, Fourth Series, Vol.5 No.1, p.23 (October 2011) was until now unknown to us but I have added it here for the sake of completeness. It is entitled ‘Entrance to Smoo cave, Durness’ and is an oil painting by Thomas Creswell (1811-1869). It was photographed by Jim Campbell and the original is in the Sheffield Museum.

A much more modern illustration comes from David Addey who retraced the route of William Daniell and produced four volumes of paintings taken from the same vantage points. The painting show below is illustration No. 41 in Vol.3 of ‘A Voyage Round Great Britain: Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the Footsteps of William Daniell’, published by Spellmount Publishers in 1966. -41- The final illustration is a watercolour by John Fielder, a local artist, c. 2005. This is now published as a postcard but the late Tony Jarratt owned the original at one time.

Legends Caves and folklore go together throughout the world and the Smoo Cave is no exception. Legend has it that the locals were terrified of the cave and none would dare pass near it after nightfall as caves were tormented by evil spirits and were the entrance to Hell.

One local tale concerns a dog that entered the cavern and emerged at another location almost four miles away with much of its hair missing. Stories such as these are common to almost every area where caves are found and usually involve either a dog or a duck. The common factors in each case are the great distance between the points of disappearance and emergence and the absence of a coat when the missing beast is found.

The story goes that Donald, Master of Reay, the local landowner, was the first to enter the inner reaches of the cave and went in a boat with six attendants and a piper and some dogs. After remaining in the cave for a considerable time, Lord Reay returned accompanied only by the piper. The fate of the other attendants was never told for neither of the two would relate what they had seen, however one of the dogs they had taken with them some time afterwards found its way out through a small cave some two to four miles distant. Although there are many small caves at Ach a’Chorrain four miles inland near the head of the Kyle of Durness where the potholing dog is said to have emerged, and Smoo Cave is probably more extensive than is known at present, it is unlikely that the story has any basis in fact. It is most likely to have originated because of the coincidental occurrence of caves at both locations.

An even more improbable story, also involving a dog, also concerns the first Lord Reay, Donald Mackay. In 1614 he inherited the lands of Reay which at that time included Durness but lost much of them to wilier men in a succession of intrigues before his death in 1649. Lord Reay may have frittered away the family posses- sions, but he was a brave and hardy soldier, spending many years on the European mainland in the service of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden.

During his adventures abroad it is said he met the Devil on several occasions, but was always able to get the better of him. The Devil was none too pleased about this and, having heard that he was going to explore Smoo Cave, followed Mackay to Durness where he sought a way to get his own back. Lord Reay was heading for the cave just before dawn and his dog ran in ahead of him. When it reappeared ‘howling and hairless’ Lord Reay realised what lay in store for him and while he was working out what to do the sun rose, making the Devil powerless. The Devil and his two lieutenants were forced to exit, forcefully, through the roof of the cave rather than face Lord Reay in the outer chamber, and the holes they made in the roof can be seen to this day.

Tales tended to be exaggerated by locals but they had the benefit of hiding nefarious practices such as smuggling for which the cave was undoubtedly used from time to time. There was also a story that the second chamber was used for an illicit still and when the Excise-men arrived to investigate the boatman who took -42- them in deliberately rowed beneath the waterfall coming into the chamber from the Allt Smoo. The boat was deliberately swamped and the excise-men were drowned but the boatman escaped unscathed.

Apart from smuggling and illicit stills, the Geo of Smoo was used for trade. There were no roads along the north coast of Scotland until the road to Durness was built by the Marquis of Stafford in 1831 so all traffic until that time was by sea. An Orcadian trader

One of the holes in the roof made by the Devil leaving Smoo

called Murdo Lowe built and lived in Smoo House and traded out of the Geo. He is also said to have built the small limestone hut at the foot of the path. Murdo Lowe was not noted for his generosity and was said to have em- ployed local women to carry bolls of meal (140 lbs or 63.5 kg) up the path to the cliff top for which he paid the princely sum of an oatmeal biscuit No wonder he could afford to build such a substantial house!

Developments in the Cave When we first visited Smoo, for me back in the ‘50s and for Milche back in the early ‘70s, the cave was much as nature intended. Over the intervening years many changes have been made to the cave and its surrounding area. Originally there was just a track down the side of the cliff and one paddled or stepped across the burn resurging from the cave, depending on the water levels.

Access to the second chamber involved clambering over rocks. In 1977 Brian Wilson, a student from Lairg, spent his summer offering to guide visitors around the cave and ferrying them into the depths, but this venture was not commercially viable bacuse the access to the landing stage involved scrambling up the rocks and was not very enticing.

The cave and the land around it is owned by High- land Regional Council and by 1985 the Countryside Commission had become involved in providing ad- vice and grants to the tune of 75% of costs of ‘improvements’.

In 1987 the North West Territorials from Liverpool, Huyton and St Helens spent some time in Durness building some infrastructure to make the cave more Commercial Postcard of Smoo Cave -43- accessible to the general public. A wooden footbridge was built over the Allt Smoo entrance shaft using safety nets, and a series of stepping stones were placed across the river at the cave mouth, as well as a ramp up to the viewing platform into the second chamber. Steps were also cut into the hillside to provide a better path down to the cave. This work was reported in the following press cutting: Also in August 1987 a GSG member reported that Smoo was now a ‘show cave and one is charged to enter the cave but only when the attendant is present.’ It was also reported at that time that Highland Ad- venture Pursuits were offering a 20 minute boat trip for £1.00 per head.

In 1988 Highland Regional Council received a commen- dation for the low- cost improvement scheme in the Na- tional Conservation Awards run by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Times Newspaper. That year’s theme was the conservation of coast and countryside.

Further work was done in the cave in March 1992 when the shell midden on the left hand side of the entrance to the main chamber was excavated by a member of the Glasgow Uni- versity Archaeological Re- search Division and the Highland Regional Council Assistant Archaeologist. Evi- dence was found of an Iron Age habitation somewhere near the cave, one of the most northerly on the British mainland. After this work was completed a revetment wall was constructed against the cut back face of the midden to prevent further erosion by the Allt Smoo river.

In 1994 caissons had replaced -44- the stepping stones and a flimy handrail was noted to have been added. There was also note of half a dozen electric uplighters in the main chamber and a roof had been added to the wooden walkway up to the landing stage/lookout point. By July 1998 fixed electric lights in the passage to the sump were in place.

GSG were invited to do some survey work on behalf of Scottish Natural Heritage and this was completed by Jan- uary 2001. SNH hold the copyright of this survey. The cave is now a Scheduled Monument (No. 5482).

Over the years car parking has been improved and there is a picnic area and toilet block at the top of the path down to the cave. In the picnic area, apart from benches, there are a series of information boards describing the history, geology and wildlife of the cave. There is also a further noticeboard giving current information on access etc. An- other path has been cut up the far side of the Geo with lookout points and a wooden bridge similar to the one over the Allt Smoo before it enters the cave. Various safety notices have also appeared. I have to say that I am not

completely convinced that all the developments which have happened are ‘improvements’.

Cave Tours Tours of the cave, including a 15 minute boat trip to the inner chamber to the waterfall and a short walk to the sump, are offered on a daily basis during the summer season and when the water levels are appropriate, by Colin Coventry. There is a leaflet on the noticeboard in the car park advertising this and inside the cave his assistant collects the money and provides helmets for the tour. Lights are not necessary although it might be useful to have a hand/head torch. Colin has recently acquired a new inflatable boat and he gained publicity for this in the Northern Times, July 15th 2011, under the heading ‘Want to see Smoo? We’ll send you to Coventry.’ The article also says that Colin was celebrating 25 years of guiding in the cave.

Your guide, Colin Coventry, in some of his disguises. -45- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Addey, David (2000) A Voyage Round Great Britain. Vol. 3: The Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the Footsteps of William Daniell, R.A. (1769-1837). Spellmount Ltd, Staplehurst, Kent, Illustration No.41. Anon. (1987) North West Territorial No.9 p. 8 (Spring) Bedford, Bruce (1985) Underground Britain. A Guide to the Wild Caves and Show Caves of England, Scot- land and Wales, Willow Books, Collins, London, pp.164-165. Daniell, William (1814-1825) A Voyage Round Great Britain. 8 Vols. [N.B. Richard Ayton provided the text to vols 1 & 2 only, 3-8 were by Daniell. It is suggested that the Scotland content may be considered as authored by Daniell only]. [Smoo is in Vol. IV, pp 84-87, published 1820]. Reprinted 1977. London: Tate Gallery Publications Dept. 2 vols. [Vol. IV of the original is in the reprinted second voume, same pagination]. Reprinted 2006 as Daniell’s Scotland: A Voyage Round the Coast of Scotland and the Adjacent Isles. 1815-1822. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited in Association with the National Library of Scotland. 2 vols. [Smoo description is Vol.1 pp. 226-229 and the engraving Vol.2, plate 85]. Dowswell, Peter (1978) Dog, Devil and Donald or Singularly Satanic Subterranean Sang-froid at Smoo. Bull. GSG Second Series Vol.2 No.2 pp. 28-29 (April). [Forsyth, Robert] (1808) The Beauties of Scotland, Vol.V, p. 156. Green, Samuel G. [1886] Scottish Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil. The Religious Tract Society: Lon- don, (New Edition Revised) p. 191. Greig, Iain (2007) Some Notes on Durness. Bull. GSG Fourth Series Vol.3 No.3, pp. 24-25 (October) Greig, Iain (2011) The ‘Durness Limestone’ - A Geological Description for Cavers. Bull. GSG Fourth Series Vol. 4 No.5, pp.33-38 (March). Greig, Iain and Coventry, Colin (2009) Smoo Cave - ‘Shakes and Ladders’ Shaft. Bull. GSG Fourth Series, Vol.4 No.2 pp. 30-31 (October). Jeffreys, Alan L. (1968) The Great Cave of Smoo. Journal of the Settle Group, British Speleological Associ- ation, pp. 16-19. Jeffreys, Alan L. (1972) Ideas on the Formation of Smoo Cave. Bull. GSG First Series Vol. 5 No.2, pp.28-30. (August) Jeffreys, Alan L. (1987) Note: Smoo Cave, Sutherland. Bull. GSG Second Series Vol.5 No.2 p. 10. (March) Jeffreys, Alan L. (2001) Smoo Cave, Sutherland. Bull. GSG Third Series Vol.5 No.5, p.37 (March) Jeffreys, Alan L. (2003) A Thought on Smoo Cave. Bull. GSG Fourth Series Vol.1 No.5, pp. 28-29 (Octob- ber). Johnston, Jim A. (1981) In the Great Cave of Smoo. The Scots Magazine, New Series Vol. 115 No.5, pp. 461-468. (August) Johnston, Jim A. (1981) The Cave of Smoo. Caithness Courier, Vol.115, No. 684, p.4 (August 5th), No. 685 p.3 (August 12th), No. 686, p. 4 (August 19th). Lawson, Tim (1988) Recent Developments at Smoo Cave, Sutherland. Bull. GSG Second Series Vol.5 No.4, pp. 18-19 (March). Lawson, Tim (2001) Smoo Cave, Sutherland: Its Morphology and Formation. Bull. GSG Fourth Series Vol.1 No.1 pp. 14-19 (October). Lawson, T.J. (2001) A Report on the Geomorphological Evolution of Smoo Cave and the Immediate Surr- ounding Area. for Scottish Natural Heritage. v+ 20 pp. M[ills], M.T. (1988) The Desecration of the Great Cave of Smoo. Shepton Mallet Caving Club Newsletter, Vol.25 No.4, pp.66-67 (September). M[ills], M.T. (1994) More Desecration at the Great Cave of Smoo. Shepton Mallet Caving Club Newsletter, Vol.32 No.5, p.77. (August) Mills, M.T. (1983) Putting Smoo Cave on the Map. Bull. GSG Second Series Vol.4 No.2, pp. 19-24 (Decem- ber). Mills, Martin (2006) Smoo Cave: An Account and Illustration from 1818. Bull. GSG Fourth Series Vol.3 No.1 pp.11-14 (October). Mitchell, Albert (n.d.) Smoo Cave. 22pp + map. Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Scotland (1894) p. 424. Originally published by John Murray: Lon- -46- don,1894. Reprinted David and Charles 1971. Oldham, Tony & Anne (1972) Discovering Caves. Shire Publications Ltd. p.44 and illus.6. Pilling, J.A. (1941) Smoo Cave. The British Caver Vol.7 pp. 44-51. Reprinted in The British Caver Vol.53, pp. 36-42. (1969) Pilling, J.A. (1954) Notes on Smoo Cave, Sutherland. BSA ‘Cave Science’ Vol.3 No.22, pp., 277-285,287. Pococke, Richard (1887) Tours in Scotland, 1747,1750,1760. Printed by the Scottish History Society: Edinburgh, pp. 126-127. Pollard, Tony (1992) Smoo Cave. Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division. Glasgow Univers- ity, 22pp. P.S.Q.R. (1835) Lord Reays Forest; Cave of Smoo; Durness; Lochs Inchard and Laxford; Scourie, Isle of Manda. The Saturday Magazine No. 214 Supplement, pp. 175-176 (October). Shaw, Trevor (2008) Foreign Travellers in the Slovene Karst (1486-1900). Published by Založba ZRC/ZRC Publishing; Ljublijana, pp. 19,20,27,46,47,55,70-79. Swire, Otta F. (1963) The Highlands and Their Legends. Oliver and Boyd: Edinburgh.

(This paper was written to accompany the audio-visual presentation made at the Grampian Speleological Group Annual Dinner in the Caledonian Hotel,Ullapool on Saturday 29th October 20112, which is now lodged in the GSG Library.) ------SOMETHING ABSURD ABOUT THE PAST* By Alan L. Jeffreys

Every picture tells a story, they say, but on occasion we don’t perhaps see or appreciate the full story. When scholars elucidate the intricacies of great oil paintings for example, we may be astonished at the detail and cultural revelations that emerge from such dissertations. We peer, as it were, through a window into history.

We should all be concerned at how fast our rich and colourful past fades so quickly from communal memory if only because what we do today and in the future should always be predicated on what has gone before. Knowledge is rewarding for its own sake and anyway I imagine we would all wish to be remembered after we’re gone. Take for instance political cartoons. They may be superficially funny as artwork, but without the relevant back story they are merely spent shell cases on the battlefield of life – Mmm; nice phrase that!

In 1965 Tony Oldham, then living in Bristol, started up a monthly newssheet called ‘The Mendip Caver’ which informed the caving community on ‘the hill’ of current explorations, digs, discoveries and, occasionally, gossip. In November 1965 he engaged Peter ‘Snab’ MacNab to provide a topical cartoon for each issue and the illustration below depicts his offering for January 1966.(1)

Everything about it has passed into history – even folklore. Many of those depicted are no longer with us and almost all the rest, I fear, have moved away from caving, but even this small group contained a handful of those gloriously eccentric beings who used to populate British speleology and they deserve another mo- ment in the sun. -47- To start with then, the cartoon depicts the old front room at the Hunters Lodge Inn (now a lounge to the right of the front door). In those days you would, as a novitiate, not have been very welcome here – this was a hang-out for the chosen, a spectacular number of them caving legends. During the heyday of Mendip singing this was the epi-centre of the uni- verse, as ‘they words’ leaked lustily from window and door.

Snab had shortly before been working at RAF Yatesbury and was a member of their caving club and the Mendip Nature Research Committee (in fact a good few members were shared between these two groups). It is only natural then that at least three of these characters ‘star’ in the drawing.

Working from left to right, interpreting the ‘speech bubbles’, we first have Geoff Baines opening the door. Back then, Geoff was mine host at the Queen Victoria pub off Priddy Green, a rival establishment particularly due to its proximity to Swildon’s Hole and Eastwater Swallet. Hammering away at the piano is Roger Biddle of Shepton Mallet CC. Biddle was, how shall I put it, quite outspoken in thought, word and deed. When Willie Stanton affixed a chain handline on the 20ft pot in Swildon’s, almost before the last bolt was tightened (certainly after the last call at the pub) Roger and fellow conspirators pounced, dramatically returning the chain to Willie at the Wessex in a brown paper bag. Attempts by the latter to pull rank sailed over Roger’s head, incurring instead frightful curses against fixed aids. Roger later moved to Edinburgh to become a stalwart of the GSG and, along with Snab, forged the close links we have with Mendip clubs.

I am reliably informed by Snab that the figure behind Roger was Chris ‘Zot’ Harvey, world class eccentric who once entertained new female members of Axbridge C.C. by dancing naked on their hut table. He was banned from the Belfry on more than one occasion; perhaps the most amusing centred on a speeding ticket he had received from the village bobby. Shortly after, during a Cuthberts rescue, said policeman unwisely asked for a volunteer to record in his notebook the names of rescuers going down the cave. Zot eagerly offered to do this, went thumbing through the notebook until he found the page with his speeding offence and tore it out!

Prominently in front of Zot is the indefatigable figure of the late, great Oliver Cromwell Lloyd who came into caving in 1949 and swiftly gravitated to cave diving. A doctor of Pathology at Bristol University, ‘OCL’ rapidly became Mendip Character No.1, ruling the CDG almost as a monarchy. A very cultured man with deep interests in music and theatre, Oliver never hid his dislikes under a bushel. If one smoked in front of him, a sharply waving hand to dispel the smoke failing to work, he would simply walk away in mid sentence and talk to someone else. His fashion sense made the term ‘bohemian’ seem like haut couture. His indignation against newcomers Mike Wooding and Dave Savage, with their ‘In- dependent Cave Diving Group’, spilled into caving politics, hence his plea for less to be written about him in the press.

Lloyd is addressing his remarks to Tony Oldham, subsequently author of a stream of caving guides including ‘Caves of Scotland’ and then editor of The Mendip Caver, premier gossip organ for Somerset caving. His foot rests on the infamous pipe which was (several times) cemented into place at the top of Swildon’s old 40ft pot, to direct falling water into an arc well away from ladder climbers. This blatantly effeminate approach to facing the elements enraged many regular practitioners who, sometimes with stealth but often publicly, persisted in removing the offending pipe with dire impre- cations against those in favour. It has all become rather academic since the 1968 floods removed any need to descend this scenic and actually largely free-climbable pitch.

In the background are two curious figures. Standing on the table is the diminutive figure of Gordon Tilly, the vertically challenged one-time hut warden of the BEC. He and another (Pete Franklin) were once set upon by a crowd of bikers on the road to the Hunters, but successfully fought them off – hence his ‘speech bubble’. He was also the cause of a second banning from the Belfry of Zot, who gleefully pissed on him from an upper bunk! Behind him is the prominent nose of George Pointing, a regular Wessex member who enjoyed fame as one of a diminishing band who had caved with Herbert Balch the ‘father’ of Mendip caving. He was immortalised in the ‘Religious Wessex Ditty’ sung to a chanted psalm tune:

“The hills of Mendip reverberate and rattle, The fields are full of frightened sheep and cattle. Eighty seconds flat from Hillgrove to Priddy, Now that George Pointing has bought a TR 3.”

(From Hillgrove, the old Wessex hut near Green Ore, to the Hunters is just over 1½ miles; to Priddy Green it is three miles!). There was a standing joke that when-ever he appeared in the Hunters front room, no matter what song was in progress, everyone would break off to sing ‘George Pointing is a b*st*rd’. He is vehemently denying this while collecting -48- empty glasses.

To the right, also behind the table, is Pete Hudson, an MNRC caver (with whom, incidentally, I had my first trips on Mendip). I always remember him from a comment made by Lindsay ‘Mince’ Thompson (GSG) who had scarred his eyes with UV and went down Swildon’s wearing sunglasses. We were “…led by that brilliant caver Pete Hudson (they all looked brilliant that day).” His beloved motor car was involved in a prang with a landrover on Mendip and he ensured nobody was in any doubt of the fact.

In the foreground, apparently bare-legged, is John Cornwell of the BEC, a genuine eccentric who seemed to have such a high-powered metabolism that he couldn’t bear to be overdressed underground and regularly caved wearing only a boiler suit. His eating habits were rather off the wall too. He was known to breakfast on 35 fish fingers and was in the 1970s rather ill due to suspected mercury poisoning from the vast amount of tuna he consumed. Although not proven, once he gave these up his health improved. His ‘catchphrase’ “I’ll tell you what…” always got the listener enmeshed in some epic digging project down Cuthberts or Rhino Rift.

The remaining two figures are both RAF Yatesbury/MNRC cavers. In the duffle coat is Pete Stewart, map dowser and fervent reciter of ghost stories. On our first GSG trip to Mendip, we had Eric Glen in a permanent state of agitation following haunting yarns recounted in the MNRC Nissan hut field station near Green Ore. Pete worked for B A E Systems and helped design equipment for the moon buggies. He was instrumental in setting up a research lab for MNRC, hence his ‘speech bubble’. The dapper figure with the handlebar moustache is Chris Foster who fell foul of the RAF when ill- judged comments on his projected Caving Expedition to Morocco appeared in the Guardian, written by John Dryden, then editor of ‘The Speleologist’. To the continued annoyance of the cooks, while at RAF Yatesbury, Chris habitually complained that their canteen curry was not hot enough. By arrangement, a practical joke was played whereby all the cavers at one table were served curry with ten times the recommended level of curry and peppers. They all felt honour bound to eat the lot, losing gallons of sweat during the process. Naturally, afterwards Chris again complained that the curry wasn’t hot enough! Possibly because of that episode, Snab is advised “not to draw me again in a hurry”.

I am sure that a Mendip regular of equal vintage to myself could do a much better job of teasing out back stories for the characters illustrated, virtually all of whom have fallen from cavers’ memories. Those definitely known to have died are Oliver Lloyd, George Pointing, Gordon Tilly and John Cornwell, taking a host of risible adventures with them. A flavour of what has been lost may be gained from Tav’s 2010 book ‘Is That So?’ which deals with behaviour from a later gen- eration of Mendip (and other) nutters. It is also interesting to note who is not portrayed in the cartoon, veterans of the Hunters’ Front Room such as Alfie Collins, Fred Davies, Ken Dawe, Brian Ellis, Frank Frost, Mo Marriott, Roger Stenner and Denis Warburton – to mention but a tiny number.

It is commonplace for older folk to insist the sun shone more brightly in their day and while I acknowledge that this is patently false, I do maintain that the British caving scene is no longer colonized by the same high percentage of characters. Back then they were allowed to flourish and enrich all our lives. Were I asked to apportion blame for this then it would be the attentions of an over-reaching, interfering bureaucracy dreaming up laws and regulations against everything, along with the democratisation of communication which, while it enables people to keep in touch with exponentially techno- logical complexity also, it seems to me, tends to equalise everyone to a common denominator – an averaged out ‘simi- larity’. Studying these old cartoons we can relive a more adventurous, far less clinical existence. That is why we should all care about history. It gives us a proper perspective with which to assess the present.

And a guid new year to you all in Scotland. ------oOo------*Max Beerbohm.

(1) from The Mendip Caver Vol.2 No.3 (January 1966) page 20. ------