Swaledale Outdoor Club

> Home > Newsletter > Caving > News from the North

News from the North

Since moving to the highlands most of my caving has been restricted to Assynt, Durness and Skye, this has included digging, a little touristing (in the early days), emptying s*** out of caves, a taster of diving, scaffolding, prospecting for fresh'ens, skip hauling, chizeling, drilling, 'banging', siphoning....Ok basically digging and very little else! I am presently following a lead on an 'unexplored cave in Applecross from a friend, stage one show entrance photos to mates at SCRO meeting tomorrow but don't give them the grid reference! Also if all goes well I should be going out to Matienzo in July/ August.

Egg Timer Dig: Durness

Taking some time out to go cycling and walking with Maeve courtesy of the 5 star (Colin) Coventry hotel in Durness ultimately found us paddling thru the tourist infested waters of Smoo cave. Desperately trying to coax an unwilling partner towards the world of Orpheus is perhaps a badly conceived idea but depending on your perspective a necessary one! We have arrived at an agreement that we do a minimum of one 'trip' together a year, not including show caves (I fought tooth and nail to get this clause!). Late afternoon we were relaxing back at the 'Coventry', arguing whether the trip in Smoo counted as a years caving (which would put Maeve in credit!). "It is a show cave" "But Dave we self toured...." It was at this point that Colin looked up from his tin of McEwans export to utter those magical words "do you fancy going digging to work up a thirst? It's a bit tight and muddy...." Sold... sorry Maeve. And so it was that the long May evenings of our stay at the Coventry came to pass on the hallowed grounds of Egg Timer Dig.

We approached the mystery location?! Well equipped with Baccy and tinnys in hand. Maeve came along to see what this cave digging thing was about. Partly due to early midges and the cold (I saw neither!) she decided that 'cave groupie-ing' was not for her and went for a 'Puffin walk' the next night. So far after a 15-year sentence to hard labour Colin (and his little helpers) have produced approx. 30 metres of classic keyhole single passage way. After the first few meters of full height stooping passage it is a mixture of hands/ knees and flat out crawling about 1 meter wide dug along the phreatic line. It is essentially straight with a couple of slight bends, the second of which, "The Round About" being a good turning and skip filling space. From here the skips can be pulled out from the entrance. Perhaps the biggest draw back into what would otherwise be very easy digging is the thing which makes the cave so interesting.... the bones.

It is slow going due to the care taken not to damage any of the many bones in the cave. Colin has built up a good relationship with archaeologist Andrew Kitchener from the Royal Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh). The bones are carefully removed from the cave, cleaned up and sent to the museum. Durness has recently set up an archaeological group which also has a keen interest in the cave, and at least one of its members (besides Colin), Donald, helps at the cave. The positively identified bones to date are Human, Wolf and Lynx, none of which appear to have been accurately dated. The bones are quite scattered and fragmented, one theory put forward is that it was once a hyenas den.

When I began to help Colin the digging was continuing from "The Round About", flat out hands in front with a narrow arch way some 3 meters ahead presenting a near perfect triangle with approx. 5-6" sides. This was a very exciting prospect, there was a space on the other side, but how much? The closer we got the larger the space appeared. In getting to the arch the amount and variety of the bones found were extraordinary. They included, a good selection of jawbones including lynx at least one of which was in good condition with the distinctive protruding front tooth of the lower jaw intact. Roe deer skull, wolf jaws bones and miscellaneous human bones were also found. But the highlight.... Colin once found a Lynx skull: "I had it in my hand....", his light went down and he came back the next day after some wet weather and it was gone! Well tragedy resolved, we dug it out a second time and our lights stayed on! Its looks in great nick and is rumoured to be only the second to come out of Britain! All to be confirmed by Colin's mate in Edinburgh of course.

Making For the arch was making me and Colin pretty sick and light headed, I hope just a lack of fresh air rather than some dormant disease from the uncovered bones! Any way this meant the younger buck got the 'glory' of gradually managing to poke his head then more and more of his body into the space beyond. In hindsight, a shrewd move Colin, old age and treachery will always win over youth and enthusiasm. As we edged our way in we began to refer to it as a chamber, hours later to squeeze in and find a let up from digging of approx. 1 meter before the toil begins again. You couldn't really call it a chamber, just a turning circle with a bigger roof. Any way what ever it is we can't agree on the name...... "provocation chamber" (well I was pretty annoyed), "Maeve's folly" (for being daft enough to let me go caving in the first place), "girlfriend lost" (no comment), "Lynx II" (boring), "the bone yard/ cemetery/ morgue/ catacomb", "the crypt" hmm quite like that Ill have to run it by Colin.

'Yorkshire' Dave Hodgson

Last Modified: 7 May, 2003