Behind the locked doors of Bagshawe Cavern

After meeting for the obligatory full English breakfast  in Buxton, our convoy headed in the direction of Bradwell village, in search of Ye Olde Bowling Green pub where we were due to meet our 'fixer'.

After a quick briefing of the cave system and an exchange of keys, we kitted up and headed to the entrance where some 130 manmade steps descending steeply into the cavern awaited us.

Our first port of call was Calypsos cave just off the main passage way; we spent a few minutes here scrabbling up into a small tube which ends fairly quickly at a dig. Returning to the main passageway to drop the kit bag off at The Dungeon, we continued our way down via the hippodrome to Top Stream Passage and the sumps.

We spent a bit of time here studying the survey, looking around and getting our bearings before retracing our steps in search of the glory hole and the first of the two locked gates that we had come to visit. Behind the first locked gate was Snake’s Pyjamas.  We crawled our way in, one by one, and admired the pretties seen on our left as we made our way up to the furthest point which we could squeeze up to.     

Back on the main passage we made our way towards our final locked gate of the day known as Coronation Crawl. This was a slightly bigger and more decorated passage then the last, so we split off in different directions to see what we could find. I climbed up into a tight rift on the right and crawled head first through water until I couldn’t progress comfortably any further, with the rest of the group returning from their little explores with similar result.

Before returning to the surface, and with time to spare, we thought we would rig the ladder and descend into The Dungeon, but not before we attempted to see if we could fit through agony crawl! This was short lived when it was soon apparent that I would be forced to remove my helmet to ‘maybe’ fit through! Not keen on getting stuck or having everyone laugh at me, we retreated back to The Dungeon pit and rigged the ladder.

The team did a grand job of rigging the ladder and soon we were lowering our test dummy (aka Kay) down the pitch. With the reassuring sounds of the rope being “free” it was our new recruit Ollies turn to descend. Ollie made easy work of the ladder and rope, and one by one we all reached the floor of the Dungeon.

It quickly became apparent that we wouldn’t be going too far as the water levels for our route ahead were looking too high, and after wading in to chest deep water it was confirmed that we wouldn’t be able to explore the lower routes at all, so we quickly retreated to the dry banks and made our way out.

At this point we all agreed that we had seen what we wanted to see and we made our final ascent of the 130 steps to make our way out of the cave. After a quick change of clothes we made our way back down the hill to Ye Olde Bowling Green pub’s garden for some well deserved refreshments and sunshine.

Present: Mike, Lucy, Rich, Kay, Ian and new recruit Ollie

Trip report: Mike Bonner

Bagshawe Caverns - Christmas Trip

Bagshawe Caverns was a cave that had not been visited by any members of the club and had earlier in the year been requested for booking by 'the boys'. So when it came to planning a post Christmas trip, this cave seemed to fit the bill as being quite local and big enough to have a couple of groups exploring it. Jessica booked the cave, plus a guide to allow one group to visit the gated sections.
The arrangements were to be at the Shoulder of Mutton ready to go to the cave at 11am, or meet for breakfast at 9am, a very leisurely start, unless of course if you were travelling with Andy, in which case setting alarm clocks for 4am was required...
Most had breakfast and then headed to the Shoulder of Mutton, Andy headed straight to the cave. Just after 11am Jon Pemberton arrived and we all headed to the cave entrance. Andy, Fred and Becca were already changed and so we were all in the hut over the entrance signing in. We split into two groups once down the massive flight of steps, one group with Jon to go to the gated areas and the other to explore the rest of the cave. The group with Jon first headed down to the Hippodrome and to the gate at the start of the Full Moon series. Half an hour was spent twiddling the key in the lock, washing with water and then a tin of WD40 was found and that too tried. Eventually we gave up and so after visit to the downstream sump we arrived back at the Hippodrome to meet the other group. They laughed at our misfortune and we sent them to experience the Glory Hole. Our next visit was to the gate to the New Series, here we followed low crawls over calcite flows until we reached Pool Chamber. The duck through the pool was sumped and so we then headed to the muddy ducks. There was a small airspace, but with nothing exciting beyond we elected not to go through. We now headed to the Dungeon pitch to access the lower series. The first group was coming back up the pitch when we got there, all very wet and cold, the passage just after the pitch was sumped and they were not able to get through. Soaked and cold the first group headed back to the surface for early bath and a visit to Hitch & Hike. The second group went down and tried to find a legendary pitch bypass crawl. Keith was sent in first followed by Brendan, and then there was not room for Mark to follow. Keith persevered along a flat out crawl until he dared go no further and so slowly and painfully backed out. We now headed out, with a brief stop to explore Agony Crawl, that Becca had chosen as her group's route into the cave!

Keith Edwards - Dungeon Pitch - Bagshawe Caverns

Carl Knott Bagshawe Caverns

Mark Burkey - Bagshawe Caverns

Keith Edwards - Bagshawe Caverns

Post trip we headed back to the Shoulder of Mutton for large portions of steak & ale pie, lasagne and home made chips. A great end to a fine year of caving, or perhaps in mind of the date a great start to 2014.

Present: Jessica Burkey, Mark Burkey, Keith Edwards, Carl Knott, Ben Marklew, Grant Wilkes, Andy Grimes, Becca Kirkpatrick, Amy Sawyer and Brendan Marris
Guide from Eldon PC Jon Pemberton