Shannon Cave
From TechnicalDiving.ie Wiki
Contents |
Location
Shannon Cave - Polltullyard entrance (H0944 3241)
Description and history of diving
Young, Free & Desperate
Formerly the terminal sump in Shannon Cave, since named 'Young, Free & Desperate'. The Shannon Group's dig to engineer a high-level bypass (the Balcony Dig) had ground to a halt and the services of cave divers were sought, to dive the sump and assist with route-finding in the dig. In March 2008 the sump was dived by Chris Jewell and Simon Cornhill. It was approximately 40 m long and gave access to over 1 km of stream passage. The following week the sump was dived again and the dig was successfully completed.
Long Way From Home
Terminal sump, a long way from home.
Just Try Me
Upstream terminal of Serpent's Curse.
References
Cave Diving Group Newsletter, 167.
Surveys
None entered.
Recent dives
Young, Free & Desperate
16-03-08 - divers Chris Jewell and Simon Cornhill; support Stephen McCullagh, Aileen Connor and Stephen 'Jock' Read
It took the team about 3 ½ hours to reach the terminal sump. On a previous trip CJ had carried in lead (to supplement a piece left by the original explorers who never had a chance to dive) and a line reel. CJ used 2 x 300 bar 3ltr cylinders, a 5 mm one-piece caving wetsuit and a 5 mm hooded vest.
Beneath the initial arch the passage was followed up a silt slope and along to an airbell. With nowhere to tie the line off to CJ dived again and carried on laying line across the floor. The line was belayed using several silt screws as there were no other features. The visibility was less than 1m but surface was soon reached after a total dive of about 40 m. CJ surfaced in a large pot with a difficult climb out to passage heading back in the direction of the sump. It appears that in flood the water backs up in the pot and flows down this passage, whereas normally the sump carries on downsteam. CJ explored briefly before returning for SC. Together the divers achieved a strong voice connection with the support team working in Balcony dig before exploring over 1km of excellent stream passage with several excellent on going leads. Upon returning to the diggers a commitment was made to focus our efforts on making the dry connection before doing any more exploration. It is important to point out that the diggers have spent several years of work just to get to this point including connecting Polltullyard to Shannon and re-engineering a way through George’s Choke.
20-03-08 - support Chris Jewell, Simon Cornhill and Hilary Greaves
We made a mid-week trip to carry 12 x 1m poles and 8 scaffold clips down to the Balcony Dig near the terminal sump. We left 3 poles at George’s Choke and carried the rest all the way.
22-03-08 - divers Chris Jewell and Simon Cornhill; support Hilary Greaves, Stephen McCullagh, Aileen Connor and Gaelan Elliffe
Two additional 2 ltr cylinders were carried in and CJ and SC dived through the sump now named 'Young, free and desperate!' to the new extension. Lump hammer, scaffold pole and other tools were also carried so that we could dig our way back through. After a quick search we located a high level chamber with a very strong voice connection. CJ then spotted a small window and squeeze, beyond which he could see the light from the dry cavers on the other side. The connection was down a steep and extremely unstable slope – where digging had been halted. However by working from the top down SC was able to safely bring down the boulders and shore up the remainder. After about 1 hour of work the 'Eighteen Thirty' connection was made (Irish accents are hard to understand through boulder chokes and I thought he was asking for the time when he was saying 'how high?'). The rest of the dry cavers then joined SC and CJ for further exploration with a new and less inviting down stream sump halting exploration in that direction. Numerous high level passages on route were noted for return trips.
