Little Gortmaconnel Pot
- Raymond Bell
- Apr 26
- 2 min read
26/04/2026
Peter & Ray
With a later start than Saturday's caving at the time of noon, leaving from the Hub (Caving Hut) we decided on Little Gortmaconnel pot, as Peter had not done it.
Nathaniel was already away from around 9 am or before cave diving at the Mable Arch Caves, he had awoken me earlier by the sound of air out the back while he was getting ready to go.
myself and Peter got the rope and other rigging gear packed up, an a quick stop at the shop for some snacks, we headed on up to to the parking area by the Ulster way, at the side of the road, following the Ulster way up, crossing a stile and another stile to the left, we cut across the field and followed the fence line over to Gortmaconnel Pots, with little Gortmaconnel being the smaller of the two.
After noticing some new nice metal stakes driven into the ground, Peter started to rig from them, and backed it up from the next set of small trees, also using a caving bag as a protector for the way down.
A small pitch followed by a slope to a good set of bolts, and a double deviation down the next slightly bigger pitch into a nice, large chamber, with a small pitch below down to a boulder chamber.
Up and over a small climb, onto the next Section with a small traverse, followed by a Y Hang down the small climb/pitch to the next and last pitch, which has a good far out deviation mid way, then straight down to the sandy chamber.
Peter was not sure about the small slide type passage down to the streamway, i headed first and spotted him down.
After looking at someone else's digging work, we headed downstream, exploring a few areas high up in the cave, before exploring the end of the cave where the stream slips away under the rock, where no man fits. (Not yet anyways!)
On the return, we explored a high passage after squeezing past a tight area, before heading back to the pitches to start heading out, Peter de-rigged the cave also.
On the last pitch, I noticed a person taking pictures, but when i got closer, I realised it was Nathaniel who had come up to meet us coming out.
All out safe and sound, walked back to the car/s , headed back to the hub, cleaned the gear.
Til the next caving adventure.
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