Charlie went on a bit of potter around in the woods around Dowgang
Hush and found a level which was filled in with rocks, a quick excavation soon
cleared the entrance. Returning to pick Karli up from a separate trip, he
persuaded him to have a look as he still had all his gear on, venturing in
Karli soon found clog prints, located immediately past a junction to the right.
The prints had the indentations left from small horse shoe heals. No other
'modern' foot prints where found in the level. It looked like Karli was the
first person in this level since the clog prints where made.
The next
day myself, Karli and Mark returned to explore and photograph the level.
Shortly in, it branched to the right and just past this first junction the clog
prints where found again. We photographed them and proceeded forward. The level
after the prints reduced in height with a build up of water, some barrow
planking was seen submerged in the water at this stage. To proceed further it
was going to be a hands and knees job, since we were not wearing wetsuits and
where planning a photography trip in Smallcleugh we decided to leave it to
another time.
The level had the air of being the old, the sides of the
passages where stacked with stone walling which was very crudely constructed
and the roof was the plain sandstone rock that the level was in. We where left
wondering about what this level was, and whether it actually went to anywhere
interesting. I checked in 'The Mines of Alston Moor' for any grid references
near to this level, but non was found. Another trip is definately needed to
reveal some more answers. |
