A Day In West Kingsdale

Here's a first attempt on the blog at publishing a slideshow.

The images were all taken in West Kingsdale in the Yorkshire Dales last Saturday when we visited Simpson Pot & Valley Entrance

Images From The Underworld

2016 has got off to a very "underground" theme. The first major outings of the year were to the Nenthead Mines on consecutive days. 

Day one was just myself & long time friend Dave Baines. Dave makes an annual visit to the North Pennines each January and wherever possible I try to join him for at least a couple of adventures. On this occasion we headed deep into Smallcleugh Mine exploring the further reaches of Middlecleugh Second Sun Vein. The srt around Bogg Shaft was great fun & after ratching around just about everything we could find on the way we eventually retreated with still more to do on another day.

For the second day we were joined by Graham Derbyshire and set off for a similar deep exploration of Brownley Hills. We headed up into the "high level" in order to continue to the build the picture from some earlier trips done there. Ascending via srt we explored both the route to the choked high level adit and also in the other direction towards Tatlers String. Once again the rapidly decaying nature of much of this mine detracted from the pleasure of exploring it and we eventually gave up on the high level.

Retreating to the main Bloomsberry level we headed back to the main cross roads and headed off up Gudhamgill vein through "deepish" water to a small hole in the concrete lined roof. Up a ladder & a roped traverse across a deep hole leads to what is the largest stope I've seen at Nenthead decorated with an impressive orange cascade.

Happy New Year