Pollthanarees
From TechnicalDiving.ie Wiki
Contents |
Location
Description and history of diving
Pollthanarees is one of the caves through which the Sruh Croppa River flows. Its downstream end is on the edge of the Mastodon shakehole. Here the Sruh Croppa sumps ('Downstream sump'). Just before this on the left a canal leads off, ending in a sump on 28-07-09 ('Canal sump') but in low water this might be a duck and may be on the survey; it ends in boulders after 0.5 m with some continuation visible above water.
References
The Caves of Fermanagh and Cavan, 1997
Surveys
None entered.
Recent dives
28-07-09 - diver Al Kennedy; support Gaelan Elliffe
With 7L and 3L back-up cylinders the sump was quickly reached as it is only a short distance from the entrance, although there is an awkward short pitch before reaching the Sruh Croppa in a large chamber.
Downstream sump
Following the Sruh Croppa downstream the river widens and deepens before sinking in a foamy sump pool in the final chamber. A beach before the sump provides a convenient dive base.
Expectations weren't very high for this dive, since the end of the cave is so close to the Mastodon shakehole. I expected to find the stream very rapidly sinking through massive boulders. I decided to follow the left wall and made a good belay on a convenient spike. After some floundering in the stream i found an alcove and fumbled around it before finding the sump proper. This stayed shallow (max. depth 2 m), with a sandy, gravelly floor. Vis was pretty poor, although the stringy organic debris in the water gave me some indication of the flow, but it was very slow (either i was out of the main flow or the sump is quite wide - i suspect the latter). The left wall was rough with small alcoves and after 5 m i saw large boulders were forming the roof. The passage was low but felt quite wide. At the 15 m mark on the line the flow was disappearing into an awkward gap in boulders, but it still felt wide to the right so i squeezed up 1 m over a gravel bank into the roof boulders, reaching 0.9 m and hearing bubbles surfacing. I couldn't find anywhere large enough to fit through although it seemed to widen out above. After some more searching on the right i returned to the final belay at 15 m and cut the line, doing a quick survey on the way out. General trend is south-east.
Worth another look with better visibility.
Canal sump
Immediately after the beach a passage leads off to the left. This closed down to water level but i could feel a decent space underwater. Taking the line i swam a short distance into boulders and managed to surface in a constricted air-space. I could see a tight way on between two boulders with 3 or 4 m of passage visible but it was too tight to squeeze in a drysuit. I tied off the line and returned. I think in lower water this short sump would be a duck. I'm not sure whether this is on the survey or not, again further investigation might be worthwhile.
