ISSN 0306 1698 comhairle uamh-eolasach na monadh liath the grampian speleological group bulletin Fourth Series vol. 2 no.4 October 2005 Price £2 2 GSG Bulletin Fourth Series Vol.2 No.4 CONTENTS Page Number Editorial 3 Meet Reports 4 A Homage to Chapel-le-Dale (Poem) 7 Additions to the Library 8 The Stalactite Cave, Arbroath, Angus 11 Another Update to Bibliography of Articles of Speleological Interest in Scots Magazine 13 Cave or Grave? 14 ‘Cobblers to the Wessex’ -Traversing the Verneau 15 Some Karst Sites at Heast, Skye 17 Caves of Kishorn 18 Some Caving Notes 25 The Club Library 32 Cave Spotting in the Berchtesgadener Alps 33 The Cuil Dhubh System - Revealed Once More 34 Under a Dark Skye 39 Cundy Mole Cave 41 Why Aren’t All Deep Caves Hot? 42 Caving in the Abode of the Clouds 2005 45 Meghalaya 2005 - Discoveries in the Jaintia and West Khasi Hills 47 Cover: Sartorial go-faster caving gear employed at Hillhouse Mine, Beecraigs, West Lothian. Alan Jeffreys in 2000. Photo: Ivan Young. 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/ E-mail (Editorial) [email protected] 3 The Grampian Speleological Group EDITORIAL: The disc jockey Paul Gambaccini once observed (sagely) that the chief value of pop songs was as instant memory triggers - to recall times and places gone by whose background was coloured by particular songs or melodies. Never one to praise ‘pop’ music as a mainstream interest, nevertheless I would most certainly sup- port this contention. Indeed, I would expand his premise to include all forms of music which in my case is a broad church indeed. The human brain is a marvellous organ. Just a single sniff or taste and one’s mind instantly relives some pre- cious moment from our past - particularly our childhood. A whiff of marzipan and I am back as a ten year old, laboriously mounting postage stamps in an album with that special gum that smelt like almonds. From that one contact point a whole cinemascope film of my childhood in Llandaff replays in bold technicolour. Let’s hear it for nostalgia! Music is very important to me and there are certain pieces which embolden caving memories like nothing else. Let me share just a few of them with you. The late 1950s and early ‘60s saw an assembly line of Hollywood-style epic films (I’m a sucker for epic films) and many of their stirring film scores do it for me. As but one example, the main theme from Miklos Rozsa’s “King of Kings” quantum leaps me to a sunny walk up Trow Gill onto the Allotment in pre club days and envious stares at famous, but as yet unattainable, potholes - Bar, Disappointment, GG. Having subse- quently formed and nurtured the fledgling GSG, my mind re-visits our explorations of shattered and gaseous Fordel Coal Mine in 1961-2, recalled by the strains of “The Big Country”[Jerome Moross] - which was also playing as I typed out the very first issues of the GSG Bulletin. By the mid 1960s, several songs symbolised our spreading activity: “Downtown” [Petula Clark] and “River Deep, Mountain High” [Ike & Tina Turner] are prominent, the latter, it seemed, always playing on a juke box in the Three Peaks transport cafe at Ingleton. This period evolved (disgracefully) into the caving flat at 121 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh and formation of the Ghillies folk group, within which I bellowed dutifully at a nearby hotel. Thus the Waterstons Folk Group came into our ken, presenting a seemingly endless number of Yorkshire and North Country songs. Listening to “Dido Bendigo” or “The Holmfirth Anthem”, unfailingly I can feel the rough creaking rope ladders, hear the merry chink of electron and less attractively smell exhaust fumes as I travelled home in the club’s ex-army lorry (“Hey Eric... London’s big, but Biggar’s bigger!”) In 1970 my invulnerability came to an abrupt end in aptly named Fall Pot. My long, plastered road to recov- ery was punctuated by “Give Me Just a Little More Time” [Chairman of the Board] and “Montego Bay” [Bobby Bloom]. These were happy and fulfilled days for all that. Jumping closer to the present, sweet, sweet memories are conjured up by “Wuthering Heights” [Kate Bush], “Bakers Street” [Gerry Rafferty - who stayed at Gilmore Place for a while actually] and “Forever Autumn” [Justin Hayward]. Mud, rock, water, snow and sun of a hundred trips fly past the back of my eyes and I sail airily down cathedrals of dark brown stone back to the land of lost content. Perhaps the latest decade is too recent for such things because nothing special comes to mind, but I daresay something will mature in due course. I notice though that all the above memories are happy ones; that’s fine by me. Recollecting bad moments is unproductive and an obstacle to a forward thinking personality. Have you ever thought this way about music? If the answer is ‘No’, conduct an exploration of your own 4 memory and if you can’t get out much, perhaps compile a CD in chronological order of your principal ‘jog- gers’. Harmless but enjoyable in a gentle sort of way. And now the nice man in his white coat is here to give me my medicine, so I’ll sign off for the moment. (Exit left to the strains of “These Boots Were Made For Walking”). Alan L. Jeffreys, Editor. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AREA MEET REPORTS (to 1.9.05) [Edinburgh logbook only] Caving continues apace, with members active in a variety of areas, and although these reports are culled from the Edinburgh log only, the contents of this issue show that exploration in Sutherland and Kishorn is at a high- er level than the reports might indicate. Also, it is pleasing to record a continued resurgence in Yorkshire trips. ABERDEENSHIRE The so-called ‘Colonel’s Cave’ near Braemar was checked out by Jim Salvona in August, but it turned out to be merely a very small rock shelter. ARGYLL In May, twelve members turned out for a practice rescue out of Uamh na Duilean Briste (ruinous to cloth- ing!) and most thereafter descended Claig-ionn to clean off. The following day there was a serious bash in Glen Duror. Some scaffolding was erected in Albion Pot and a dig above the presumed end of Draught Caledonian was halted when fluorscein indicated it would proba- bly not bypass the terminal constriction. The middle of August witnessed five members in a six-man party commencing a detailed survey of the caves on Staffa, which represents undoubtedly the most detailed investigation to date of this fascinating island. Many new caves were identified. An article will appear in a later issue of this Bulletin. AUSTRALIA Escaping to the sun in February, Dick and Anne Grindley managed tourist trips into Royal Cave, Buchan and Swallow Cave, Sheok River, both in Victoria. The latter, although not strictly speaking a cave, has unusual fretted erosion in its roof. They also visited Survivor’s Cave at Port Campbell which is more of an over- hang. AUSTRIA On holiday in June, Jim Salvona managed, in the land of deep caverns, to locate an eight metre trial adit near Seefeld. You can’t keep a good man out of holes! BELGIUM After a military excursion along the Western Front in France and Belgium, Jackie Yuill persuaded her part- ner to visit Grotte de Lorette and Hans-sur-Lesse show caves in April. She reports the son et lumiere to still be good value. 5 CORNWALL Goon and family, in Plymouth for Su’s Passing-in Parade, sought out a small show mine at St Neot in April. Called Carnglaze Slate Quarry, it possesses an underground concert hall and was worth a ten minute stroll. DERBYSHIRE Assisting SUSS in their favourite dig, Roger Galloway, Annie Audsley and Mark Brown excavated for some time in Crematorium Pot in August, but eventually had to leave for a party! EDINBURGH John Crae, working in Holyrood Palace, explored 17 metres of brick lined boilerhouse flue in June which ter- minated in a vertical flue rising to the top of the N.W. tower. INVERNESS-SHIRE Over the Spring a good deal of rewarding work has been carried out in the Kishorn area by local members Dave Morrison and Richard Simpson and in May they were joined by an Edinburgh contingent for a bash round all the new finds. (See this issue). On 28th May the whole party crossed to Skye for a selection of trips into High Pasture, Valley Head and Camas Malag Caves in rather damp conditions. July saw Dick Grindley on Barra (Hebrides) investigating a cave marked at Dun Sgurabhal but a frustrating search did not throw up anything. In August there was a short trip in High Pasture Cave while Ivan ran some cables through to the dig site, and in Applecross, Chris Warwick and Mark Campbell were successful in discovering some short new caves and a host of other karstic sites (see this issue) and also managed to extend Cave of the Kings at Kishorn. ITALY On holiday in the Dolomites in July, Pete and Virginia Dowswell carried out trips into WW1 tunnels on Little Lagazoi and the Grotta Cascata Varone. PEEBLESSHIRE In April Matt Hutson soloed Jeanie Barrie’s Cave one evening, but encountered bad air in the far reaches. PERTHSHIRE Five members paid a rare visit to Schiehallion in July, seizing an opportunity to GPS caves at Foss and Lassintullich.