North 4 Level - Dowgang Burn Woods (13/01/08)

Of all the levels that we had a looked at today, this was the most inviting - adit open, gate visible. As I took some photographs Pete made his was in, which was quickly accompanied by various curses. The gate it turns out, forces you to go on hands and knees, insuring a good dousing in very cold water.

We made our way in and shortly came to a branch on the right, this was ignored and we carried on in. The level had stone walls and most of the roof was solid rock. The floor looked to be a bedding plane and with the water flowing over it, it looked very impressive. Carrying on, we passed another branch, this time on the left. This one was half back filled and backed up with water. Passing this, we carried on until we hit a four way branch. With the water flowing and the silt built up, along with tonnes of pine needles the level gave a strange feeling - almost like being inside a beavers lodge. Pete had a look up the passage heading straight on, whilst I got the camera gear out. He came back shortly, informing me that it went on, but you would have to crawl through lots of silt and cold water. We then took the left hand branch and this led to a working face. Along the way we found what we thought was a flange, (unless it is a rotted tin that has fallen in on itself) a very old tin of Crown paint and near the end of the branch a stick of dynamite.

Returning back to the junction Pete had a look to the right, and came back with the same conclusion as with the striaght branch - silt and cold water. Time pressing on, we headed out for the portal, however when we came to the first branch, an air current was noticed - I did not fancy having a look, so Pete went in for a ganders. After a while he came back to say the passage hit another parallel level and at one end he could see day light - from what we had seen today, that could only have been the North 3 Level, unless our bearings are very wrong.

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