Well over 4 years ago, we had by accident dropped down into an
isolated part of the Caplecleugh Horse Level whilst looking for the famous
'calcified rise'. Back then, my photography was a bit on the under developed
side and so I wanted to have another chance to look into this isolated section
taking hopefully better snaps. Making our way in via the Smallcleugh portal, we
headed for the Cowhill Cross Vein and then dropped down into the sublevel
below. From here we put a safety line down the second calcified manway and
proceeded down. The ladders still were as far as we could see in the same
condition as before, pretty much sound and heavily calcified - in fact, some of
the rungs were covered with so much of the stuff you could hardly get your feet
in. Reaching the bottom, there is only one way to go - east. This took us
through a muddy, grotty crawl into a sublevel and stoping above Caplecleugh.
All long this level there were ore chutes and a number of manways down. Just to
the side of the chute that we would use to abseil down, there was a little flat
which, we climbed down into. Inside, there were wooden planks, lots of fuse and
detonator tins all over.
Coming back out of this we rigged the near by
ore chute up and one by one we abseiled down into Caplecleugh Horse Level, some
12m below. First of all, we headed east towards the forehead end, passing many
hoppers and a few laddered manways. In a little alcove on the left there was a
wrench for square nuts and a little wooden box which, contained a detonator
tin. We carried on and hit a large fall of debris underneath a hopper and
manway. You could get past this, but a few metres on a shale fall stopped us
getting further. Whilst myself and Pete took some photographs, Karli started
prodding at the fall. He managed to clear it very quickly and you could see
into the level for a further 5m or so, then another fall could be seen. We
probably went around 100m along the level, and from the abandonment plans I
would say there is another 100m to the forehead. On the plans, there are some
dates that show this area was worked between 1913 and 1914, with the forehead
being reached in April 1914. Also just before the forehead there should be a
shallow sump, dated 01/07/13. Maybe it would be nice to come here in April
2014?
Returning back towards the hopper that weentered from, we headed
west and after only 40m or so a big fall was reached. The fall was at a hopper
and there was a hell of a lot of very fine material. We did not have ago at
shifting it, maybe a mistake? Judging from what I saw a few months ago on the
other side near the calcified ladder rise, this was not the fall from that end
as that one consisted of large limestone deads. We prussiked back up the ore
chute, climbed back up the calcified ladder, and finally emerged in the large
stope just of Cowhill Cross Vein - a perfect spot for lunch. This trip is
continued in
Smallcleugh. |
