To help finish of exploring the back end of the Smallcleugh
complex I wanted to survey the stopes past Bogg Shaft and to finish of some
bolting we has started last summer with the aim of finding out whether a link
to Caplecleugh Horse Level was open or not. We headed for Bogg Shaft and past
the Cowhill Cross Vein Alistair and Karli took the opportunity to have an
explore of some of the rises along the Middlecleugh 2nd Sun Vein which where
very interesting.
Finally after much complaining from Karli about the
weight of the SDS drill (the young have no stamina these days) we arrived at
the bottom of the ladder which leads to the shaft, only to be horrified by the
sight that greeted us - there was a collapse out of Bogg Shaft. Rocks had piled
up against the top of the ladder and it all looked unsafe. Alistair had a
careful climb up for a look, from what he could see it was not possible to
safely clear the rocks as the choke at the top of the ladder was holding back a
potential nasty slide. He climbed down and we tried to move the ladder up and
down to dislodge the rocks, this did not work too well. In the end the rope
which tied the first ladder had to be cut and then we managed to pull the
ladder away releasing the choke. After some more jiggling of the ladder by
Alistair and Karli the biggest rocks came down. Karli at this point climbed
onto the second ladder and managed to clear the finer rocks.
At this
point is was discovered that some major things have changed inside the shaft,
from what we could remember it looked like one of the pipes may have sheared
and a rail track has come down as we could not remember this before, the most
interesting thing was that polythene plastic sheeting and the horn from a sheep
could be seen, our minds started racing... had someone been digging from the
top side or had it all just fallen in? Whatever the case material from the
surface has reached this part of the shaft. We pulled back to the near the rise
from the horse level and had lunch, feeling naffed of about trekking all the
way here and not being able to complete our goals.
After lunch I popped
up to take some pictures, one thing that struck me was that the air did seem
quite fresh at the edge of the shaft, confirmation of a 'open' link or wishful
thinking? There are still many rocks that look ready to come down, and if the
rail track that is there is new then that needs to be removed as you just don't
know how secure it is and what it is holding up. We turned back feeling that a
lot of time had been wasted, however on the positive side if the shaft was
cleared and a link could be made to the surface you could get to this part of
the mine by SRT, saving a lot of time. It would also be useful in the event of
a deep rescue. On the way back I had the idea of having a look at the
Middlecleugh Vein, as non of us had ever explored it. This was a big surprise
for us.
We dropped into a little stope from the horse level which
carried further down into a much larger one. Karli put in a bolt and we dropped
down about 8m or so. On landing we realised that the stope was very big and
that it went on for a considerable distance. Carrying on along it we came to a
few ore shoots and then discovered an intact kibble and other artifacts
including some clog prints. It was all very interesting but the lack of time
was hanging over us, so we had to move quickley to see as much as possible. I
took a few pictures whilst Alistair and Karli rigged up an ore shoot. A few
minutes later shouts where coming out of the ore shoot for me to get down and
bring the camera. Rapid packing of equipment and equally a rapid decent brought
me into a sub level to join the others some 5m below the stope. The level
seemed to follow the stope above, but the most inviting find was directly
opposite the ore shoot exit, a laddered manway and shoot going down, to what
can only be Caplecleugh. From a quick recon of it, it looks like it needs some
gardening work doing and then it would be OK to go down. At this point we had
to high tail it out of the mine as call out time was getting close.
The
find on the Middlecleugh Vein made the trip much better to stomach after the
discovery of Bogg Shaft being blocked and will deserve another more detailed
examination. Also Bogg Shaft needs to have work done on it, if it is to be made
safe for passing. A trip down the surface side would also be good to do, to see
the state of the top end. As always more cans of worms. |
