Tiragarvan River and Quarry rising

[Penguin]

Caving wise interesting!  And wet and muddy.  Cave diving wise -

Tiragarvan River

Tried to extend cave downstream from Puthewarntagh but only managed 3 feet.  Upstream from Lugadorris the way on through the boulder choke is too tight for a drysuit squeeze without damage and a bit unstable.  We did however see a few more feet beyond. 

Quarry rising

Things looked up at this point and i embraced the rock in happiness! 



We kitted up and hiked back.  While waiting for Ardhill i had a quick look and it didn't look good...    We left the tanks on the river side and went 'dry' caving instead.  Crawled up a small phreatic tube, into a slightly larger tube which was mostly mud filled.  Ardhill waited and i crawled on some more in very small muddy passage to a chamber.  Stream sumped and i put on mask and stuck torches underwater but it looks really really small.  Water is nice and clear though.  Return to Ardhill to find he had been doing battle with some speleo-eels.   

Looks like they have dug the river deeper than it originally was - i guess to stop flooding - and obviously the water level in the rising has fallen a lot.  The small passage into big matches up with the ISI although the shape of the small passage is not how i thought it would be as it zigzags through two 90 degree bends.  The 2.5x2m passage is a bit smaller than that now that there is a big bank of mud filling one side (right hand side) and the bottom - bedding plane to the left. 

On the way back i got rather exited by a lot of bubbling water.  After some digging it turned out to be a culvert...  :'(

Further exploration http://forum.technicaldiving.ie/index.php?topic=1257.0

Previous exploration http://forum.technicaldiving.ie/index.php?topic=1221.msg7038#msg7038

[Ken Hawk]

Next time you go exploring, give us a bit of notice and we might come.
I have a shovel 

Ken

[Penguin]

Next time you go exploring, give us a bit of notice and we might come.
I have a shovel 

Ken

JCB shovel or a no. 6 long tailed shovel?!

[ardhill]

The 2.5x2m passage is a bit smaller than that now that there is a big bank of mud filling one side (right hand side) and the bottom - bedding plane to the left. 

A bit smaller!

Actualy useable space in passage = 2foot x 2foot

Apart from that big chamber wher there was room enough to get your legs out into the beding plane on one side and your head, shoulders and upper back up the mud bank. That was he place I had a rest while our intrepid penguin pushed on till the passage got too small. And I played - what is that wriggling beneath my legs 

[ardhill]

Next time you go exploring, give us a bit of notice and we might come.
I have a shovel 

Ken

JCB shovel or a no. 6 long tailed shovel?!

A JCB shovel could be really useful at one of the sites.

[arturconrad]

Hmmm...on Quarry Rising: I must say I am a bit disappointed...I expected something else...It didn't quite matched description in ISI, did it? Are you pretty sure that's the spot? Do you think you can get somewhere if sidemounted?

artur

[Penguin]

Hmmm...on Quarry Rising: I must say I am a bit disappointed...I expected something else...It didn't quite matched description in ISI, did it? Are you pretty sure that's the spot? Do you think you can get somewhere if sidemounted?

artur

Yes, that is the spot!  We met a local who remembered the original divers - they camped up in the meadow. 

The description does roughly match the ISI, allowing for the fact that they were diving we were doing it 'dry'.  The passage is a small phreatic tube to start with, it turns left 90 degrees and then right 90 degrees which is not said in the ISI (i thought it would be straight) but it is the right length up to the bedding plane where the first diver gets stuck on his second dive.  This is straight ahead as you exit the tube.  Turn right and you are looking down the 2x2.5m passage but it isn't that size, but take out the mud that has accumulated on the right hand wall (a good foot thick) and the bottom, and allow for 30% enlargement because of the water refraction it would start to look about the same size as the ISI reports.  It is now a tight crawl along this passage to the reported airbell - with the risk of the right wall slumping into the passage!  Here the stream sumps and it is very small.  The water is clear and there was a good current - i guess there may be a reasonable fall in height between the FMC stream and the Quarry rising stream? 

The original divers had to dig out the mouth of the rising - where i am standing i guess the silt deposits as the water spreads out, it was obviously about 18 inches or more higher to allow the water to fill the passage behind.  The farmer has dug out the stream - the channel is 4 or 5 foot below the meadow level - and this has drained the rising back to the sump...  :'(  Imagine the water level around my armpits - i think this is what it would have been originally. 

[slimtiger]

The water was around your armpits you say/
So thats a depth of around three feet?

[Penguin]

The water was around your armpits you say/
So thats a depth of around three feet?

Harhar!  Small is good in this caving lark methinks...

[ardhill]

Do you think you can get somewhere if sidemounted?

I brought a tank in as I got fed up with my mouth half submeged in muddy water (I had left my snorkle in the car), and the only way it was going in was to push it in front of me as I crawled through the passage, and that was one of the passages big enough to get through.

[ardhill]

The water was around your armpits you say/
So thats a depth of around three feet?

Harhar!  Small is good in this caving lark methinks...

Imagine Slimtiger trying to get into Quarry rising 

[Stephen McMullan]

Maybe the water pressure build up would blow a geyser out of Londegans Swallet.

Sorry Dave 

[arturconrad]

After through trip in Creeve Rising on Thursday ( Yes, through trip! Details soon) we followed Mille River upstream and soon we arrived at the back of McCabe's quarry. I have never been in Quarry Rising relocated last year by Al and Paul so we took a quick look. It was basically small (0.6x0.6m) meandring stream passage and again, I just couldn't see how that place could match description in Irish sump index (2x2.5m submerged phreatic tube) and how anyone could dive that place base fed line for 30m...
There was another passage, going along the edge of the quarry and carrying another small stream. We followed it underground for about 20m until it broke to the surface and after another 30m or so it took us to small rising in the face of quarried cliff. I jumped in with drysuit and mask just to see if it goes somewhere and it did: water was coming from low descending slit that seemed to open up further underwater.
We came next day with diving gear and after removing few rocks I squeezed through the entrance and found my self in roomy submerged chamber. I have easily located big phreatic tube that took me on a second dive to airbell 0.6x1.5 and 2m high ( just like in ISI) 30m from base.. Actually there was no natural roof ( there was mound of rocks at the bottom indicating some collapse) - I could see some rusted metal cover above. At the same time Al was walking around on the surface  and heard my bubbles coming from somewhere. Cave was closing down ahead but there was big arch on my left hand side so I tried that way. Bottom was covered by very fine mud at least 30cm in depth and the flow was way too week to carry away any disturbed particles. I had impression that way on continued low but I didn;t see any point of continuing in that sort of conditions - we need wet weather and strong current to indicate the way on and to clear visibility quickly. On the way out I have spotted more big openings, now on my right hand side ( which is promising given the fact that Fin McCool's cave is situated in that direction and Quarry Rising is supposed to be its resurgence) I made two jump lines but each time I hit mud banks after few meters.
But I say good prospects.

artur

[Penguin]

To avoid confusion    i've put two pages in the Wiki, one for Quarry Rising North (the one reported in the ISI) and one for Quarry Rising South which seems to have gone unreported despite the Irish Caving Club camping beside it in 1964 while they surveyed the area...   

[arturconrad]

(...) and one for Quarry Rising South which seems to have gone unreported despite the Irish Caving Club camping beside it in 1964 while they surveyed the area...   

Weird indeed....