Description

After the 2m drop from the entrance a tight squeeze under a large boulder leads to a downwards sloping passage. About 3m down this passage is a right turn which leads to a flat out crawl to the end of the “Dangerous Dig”. Continuing on down the main passage for another 5m leads to the “Bottom Dig”. Just before the tight squeeze under the large boulder a right turn, at waist height, leads to a small chamber 3m in diameter and 1.5m high. At the far end of this chamber a low crawl, 10m long, leads to the end of the “January 2004 Dig”.

Discussion

It was suggested that the end of the Rift may have been roofed over and the collapse of this roof would account for the large boulders in the heap at the end. This could have been the reason why the mining ceased because of the collapse rather than as the story from the miners states that they collapsed the entrance. This theory was given some substance when a large 1m cube boulder was noticed at the base of the collapse at the end of the Rift and on the bottom there were the stubs of stalactite straws indicating that at one time this large boulder was in the roof.

Had a look at the entrance to the quarry and noticed to the right hand side of the entrance a very large spoil heap of ochre 7m long. The ochre looks of useable quality – I wonder why it was not transported down the hill for processing?

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