Surface Shaft 3 (14/11/04)

Karli had been chomping at the bit to do a surface shaft and between him and Charlie they found one just off the track heading for Flinty Quarry before the gate on the right hand side. It was promising as there was no sign of water and it was venting.

We carefully removed a sleeper and rigged the shaft for decent, which turned out to be in the region of 20 to 25m. The weather outside was terrible, with drizzle and a very cold wind, we where glad to get down the shaft as some of our body parts felt ready to drop off. The bottom of the shaft had 2 passages, one blocked, the other a goer. Moving out from under the shaft bottom we entered a chamber which had a few artifacts including a candle stuck to the wall with clay and the remains of an old clog. This was wonderful to see, and in a few other small stopes more remains could be seen. The chamber we where in had a grotty incline going down at about 45° for some 5m, which ended in a wooden platform with old sides of ladders going down. The drop was only 2m or so and was easily negotiated. A few meters past this we came to another shaft which was deep, however its depth could not be estimated as the edge was not sound and we had no belay.

This needs to be revisited with some more rope with a mind of going down the second shaft. Looking at an OS map it is approximately 500m more or less directly west of Bogg's Shaft - if not blocked, and if it is deep enough it could well go to the further extremities of Smallcleugh or even Middlecleugh, however looking at a map it possibly may be heading for the Capelcleugh Level. If this is the case then you are looking at a decent of around 140m. If anyone knows about this shaft we would be grateful to hear from you.

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