Yorkshire Subterranean Society

It must be coincidence. Our choice of caving destinations being places noted for their fascination with beer. Following last years successful jaunt to Belgium, a plan to go caving in Ireland had been cunningly hatched.

Sunday 2nd July The weather was looking showery, and most of the cave descriptions had flood warnings. We plumped for the through trip from Poulnagollum to Poulelva. Our logic was that the worst that was likely to happen was the connection being flooded and we would have to return the way we came. I set off to rig the 30 metre entrance (exit ?) shaft of Poulelva with Terry and Richard whilst the others set off to find the Poulnagollum shakehole. Having been eaten alive by midges, we met up and climbed down the entrance shaft. Into gunmans passage we found some excellent moonmilk chutes with pools which provided their fair share of amusement. Shortly we arrived at the climb down, which was basically a slide. The way on was downstream, but we decided to have a quick look upstream first. After about fifteen minutes meandering streamway we were greeted by daylight at the foot of entrance shaft. A quick look at the survey confirmed this, so we set off back to the base of the climb. Following this we were into huge streamway with the classical County Clare shape. Easy walking for quite a way with some interesting formations and rock sculpture. After a brief crawl we arrived at the beginning of the maze. After a brief discussion, and admiring the amazing "pendant" roof, I set off up a crawl to the right. Meanwhile Gerik still wasn't convinced so set off straight on. Everyone else waited. My way was going well and dropped into a cross passage. I shouted back and Ray followed. Shortly after so did everyone else. Ray took the lead for a while and we concluded we were now in the craven canyon, the way out. More passage, some climbs and a squeeze and Ray announced he could see daylight. Next came the nice surprise. A cow had decided to descend the entrance shaft and was now several weeks old, so the smell was lovely ! I was glad I had been chosen to de-rig so I got plenty of time to appreciate the delicate bouquet. Back on the surface we all commented on how low the water seemed compared with what we had expected. Back to the lodge, a quick clean up and it was off to O'connors for a meal and a few drops of the black stuff. After this we decided we should explore the other sights of Doolin, so wandered to the other two pubs - McGanns and McDermots. The rain was coming down pretty hard most of the evening so we were also thinking of the next days caving.

Monday 3rd July We all awoke feeling a little the worse for wear. Richard and Ian decided they were not fit for caving and would go for a walk instead. The remaning four of us looked for a dryish, easyish option and settled on Cullaun 2. This proved to be a very enjoyable cave, with pleasant walking streamways and nice cascades and climbs. A brief exploration of the Year passage led us to some cracking formations. Eventually we arrived at the final cascade. According to the book this 10 metre pitch could be freeclimbed. We all concluded that it probably could, but as the sump was only fifty yards round the corner we didn't really want to risk getting knocked off it by the water, and beat a retreat. To vary the route someone in their wisdom decided we should follow the old streamway back to the entrance. The guidebook had just mentioned "a stooping canyon with an awkward floor trench" This to be the case. The passage was just the wrong height, and the floor trench was brilliant at grabbing wellies and trying to wrench them from your feet, or trip you up. After much swearing we eventually arrived near the entrance and made our way out. The evening was spent with a meal at the Doolin cafe, which was very nice followed by a few pints and some more music.

Tuesday 4th July The Doolin River cave has three main entrances. Fisherstreet pot, St. Catherines one and Aran view swallet. The "classic" trip is to enter St. Catherines and exit Fisherstreet. The Fisherstreet entrance is a 30 foot shaft, which is in the lodge's owners filed, fifty yards from our accomodation. I set off to rig that, suitably dressed in shorts, wellies and SRT kit. Ian almost made a fairly rapid descent as well, due to the slippery mud at the top. That done, we all piled into the van and drove up to St. Catherines. A quick call at the farm to ask permission, and then we were off again. Ray and myself were treated to a great Postman Pat impression as the others drove over hill and dale to find a parking spot. The description for St. Catherines entrance described a low crawl in the stream. Well, there was a lowish crawl but no sign of water. I was wishing I'd put some water in my carbide before we set off, but eventually found a muddy pool. We're not entirely sure how we got through the upper section, as none of it bore much relation to surveys or descriptions. After various walking, crawling, wet, dry, tight sections we thought we knew where we were again. We had also managed to locate the various well decorated grottoes, again with some lovely formations. From here , it was huge streamway passage for a good while. It was possible to make good progress in this sort of cave, but we tried to take our time and admire the rock sculpture and formations. A few side passages and climbs were also explored en route downstream. Having passed the Aran view inlet, and the Aille cascade, the cave lowered, and a wet bedding cave led to daylight at Fisherstreet pot. During the ascent we were photographed for the lodge brochure, so had to take some time to ensure our looks were up to scratch. The weather had now greatly improved and we decided to have a barbecue. Ian and I drove off to Lisdoonvarna to get some grub while the other lounged around drinking beer, sorry I mean got the barbecue ready. Some excellently made chicken kebabs, burgers sausages, etc were all washed down with plenty beer before we again headed out for some music appreciation and Guinness.

By this time, we had concluded that the water was probably as low as it ever got in Clare. One cave we had all wanted to do was the Coolagh river cave, but it carried some pretty hefty flood warnings. The UBSS explorations have some fairly horrific tales of the water spurting out of the hillside under flood, but we decided this was the best chance we would get. There are various entrances, but we decided we would enter Polldonough south, go down the main drain, and then either exit the same way or via Polldonough.
The first section in south was a low wet canal, and the evidence of flooding in this section was clear. This then opened out into the double passage. This is a section of cave of hourglass shape, along which you traverse in the upper passage. At the end of this was a sluther down into column chamber from which various ways led off. After a bit of exploration we followed the bedding cave route into the main drain. From here the stream became massive in size, with nice cascades. The most famous of these was Balcombes pot, which in low water did not present a problem. It is similar to the water chute in Dr. Bannisters in Long churns. At the bottom of this we located the climb up to Gour passage which we decided we would use on the way out to get back to the column chamber area. Downstream continued in big style with more cascades, small climbs and deep wading in gravel pool (with the famous guinness head on the water) until we reached a junction. To the right led off to the sump, whereas right led through some sticky mud to the currently blocked entrance of Pollclabber.
Returning to the bottom of Balcombes pot, we climbed up into gour passage. In this there were good sized calcite dams to step over until we arrived back in column chamber. A brief discussion on tactics led to Ray and Gerik reluctantly joining me on the way out of Polldonough whilst the others went back the way we had come in. As it turned out, there were no problems going out Polldonough, and it was mostly pleasant streamway, with a bit of climbing and bedding cave. We had expected it being quite squallid. A bit of a chat with the local farmer who had let us park in his yard whilst we got changed, and then it was back to Doolin.
After a walk down to the pier and back and some fish and chips which were nothing to write home about, we wandered into O'connors. My hayfever was really getting going, and I was eventually sent home before I fell asleep in the pub.

Friday 7th July A very slow start, tired and hungover we looked for a relatively easy trip. After much discussion we decided on Cullaun five. On getting there, and going through the entrance series we decided this was heavy going. It was not particularly hard caving, but awkward, and the enthusiasm was hard to get going. In any case we kept on and the passage improved to a small canyon and then we were soon at the pitch. Down from this we were into very pleasant streamway, well decorated. My camera had been playing up, and I eventually decided the batteries were completely dead. Typical, as this was probably the most beautiful of the caves we did. After a while the pleasant streamway degenerated into the bedding caves. One section of this had some of the sharpest scalloping in the floor I've come across, or were the knees just getting tender after a weeks caving ? Following this the cave again opened up, and before long we were at the final cascade camber. Low crawls go on from this some way, which Ray and Gerik had a bit of a look at while the rest of us waited in the big chamber. Back the way we had come, still cursing for not having brought spare batteries, and we were out. That night, as our final night we had decided to try out the seafood restaurant we had eyed up earlier in the week - The lazy lobster. This was an excellent meal and a good finish to a good week.

James Brooks
Teresa Brooks
Ian Goodfellow
Richard Oxley
Gerik Rhoden
Ray Taylor