With Mike up in Glen Coe and limited time on my hands before the arrival of visiting relatives, a short but interesting trip was required. The CNCC
guide describes Middle Scar as "A quirky Ribblehead gem, involving swimming, a challenging climb and a memorable summertime adventure." Perfect, just what Tony and I needed!
You know it's going to be an adventure when you have to add a buoyancy aid to your kit list, though I definitely felt a little out of place amongst the hoards of t-shirt and short clad viaduct spotters wearing a full wetsuit in the baking sun. Fortunately it was only a hundred or so metres to the cave entrance in a shake hole deep enough to hide our niche activity from view. A barn owl was using the solitude of the depression for a mid morning snack and while it was probably annoyed by being interrupted, we were awed by its flight. We removed the sheep repelling grille from the entrance and within a few metres we needed both our neoprene and buoyancy, the water both deep and cold.
With buoyancy on the first few out of depth metres of canal are superb. You can just float and haul yourself along on the currently in situ ropes, taking a moment to observe the dive line emerging from the depths and the wet(ter) entrance. The ropes end at the point you can wade and with the exception of the occasional collision with a submerged rock rib or two, it's superb caving. Dry land brings a return to the more usual caving found in these parts before arrival at a waterfall that bars the way on.
Two ropes hung down, one either side of enthusiastic trickle that the fall had been reduced to by weeks of dry weather. Despite having rather cool flecks of reflective material in its sheath the rope on the right looked quite ropey in the other sense of the word, so we opted for that on the left. While initially I was puzzled by the description of the climb as 'holdless', the issue soon became apparent. There look like there are holds but any attempt to use them in anger would probably result in them crumbling away.
Over the dam at the top of the fall a closer inspection could be made of the ropes and their anchors. I felt we had chosen wisely. While the rope we'd used was belayed to a number of sound looking bolts by 'traditional' rigging, that on the left was threaded through a couple of more dubious looking bolts and secured by stopper knots to prevent it pulling through the hangers. As it was also worn through to the core in a number of places we removed it and left it to pick up on our way back.
Further classic caving brings you to the only junction in the cave. The way straight on, Mudlark, we read lives up to its name and we didn't feel it necessary to fact check the description. Left, up an inlet, leads to the more enticing Rising Mirth and what is now one of my favourite pieces of passage anywhere. It's not particularly remarkable apart from a series of incredible chert bands. Prior to this I think all the chert bands I've seen lie, like the limestone beddings they're sandwiched by, in the horizontal plane. These lie in the vertical plane and intersect the passage at a range of angles, sometimes even at 90 degrees to each other. The result is a series of walls or dams that look like the Hulk has smashed through, their integrity in places looking like it would be similar to a stud wall.
A remarkable assault course therefore ensues as you try to thread yourself through them, channeling your time spent as a youth playing Operation. I've never seen anything like them anywhere else and, after a recent visit to New Goyden as well, I think chert has now made it into my top three when it comes to types of rock. My favourite walls being where calcite had grown over the chert leaving glistening white walls instead of black. Sorry Mike when we take you to visit I'm going to be taking my big camera box!
Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and our passage 'finished' at another 5 m high waterfall in Parba pot. While the survey (it's fantastic that the CNCC descriptions now have links to the cavemaps site that they now host with all its online surveys) shows that the passage continues above the fall, we're told it's similar in nature to Mudlark and would also require further climbing aid. While turning around is normally associated with merely having to cover previously trodden ground, I was excited to have another opportunity to experience its amazing geology.
Despite our spending a couple of hours exploring, mainly in the water, we hadn't made much of an impact on its temperature and the final canal still felt cold. The excellent little homemade ladder allowed easy egress from the flooded section and back up into the beautifully engineered entrance. As soon as we climbed the metre or so out of the depression the car was immediately visible and we were there in a matter of minutes.
This is an absolutely stunning trip for small groups of careful cavers and it feels surreal that sucn adventure can be had so close to the crowds at Ribblehead. The only down side being trying to time the more revealing parts of your change with the few moments when there aren't people taking photos of the viaduct.
