Rat Run, West Gorge Cave/s

Trip Report 2nd Jan 2026

Rat Run West Gorge System.

Nathaniel, Peter, Oisin

This cave was found in 2018 by a group of cavers, it subsequently had a collapse and was left unexplored until Ray rediscovered it and stabilized it using scaffold. The cave itself is very tight, with seldom any room to sit up, demanding and slow crawl/ worming all the way through.

Given the small nature of the cave small bottles were required so I borrowed a set of Ray's 3L bottles and requested the help of some student caver sherpas. I would like to strum up as much interest and opportunities for people to interact with the diving side, so inspiring the youth should hopefully implant some future seeds. Again, sherpas will always be recognised and remembered with gratitude because of the aid they are to diving. They really are an essential and valued part of the team.

We met in the Culcaigh car park late in the evening, brief pleasantries shared and a bit of cave beta and the plan for the day. We agreed on a communication system, legs crossed means requesting to be pulled, however with sump conditions during the dive I am not sure they would've seen a mermaid had it swum by.

The 2 sherpas took one cylinder each in a tackle bag, the derbyshire tube and I carried the darren drum with regs and essentials packed inside. It didnt take long to locate the cave and begin our descent. We had good teamwork passing through the cave. I was experimenting with a new equipment configuration, wearing standard caving kit but with bungee wrapped on my shoulders for donning cylinders. in this confined space I found that it was catching rocks a bit and being drawn up over my arms so some redesign potentially needed.

The system is a complex of different tubes, all interlinked but finding the most efficient easiest to pass can be a bit of an adventure. We did ultimately locate the sump, after nearly preparing to dive a duck only. I kitted up in the relatively spacious rift to the sump and progressed down. Immediately the sump visibility dropped to nill, I could see the glow of my torches but nothing else. I followed the wall down, rotating to my side to allow myself to slip down the rift. The cave came to a point at the end of the rift and just didnt continue in a northerly direction as expected. Instead it turned sharply right and even back on itself close to east south east. I tried fitting with my helmet on but I was too bulky with 2 lights fitted on either side of my helmet so I removed my helmet and continued hood only and no lights. I dug for 20 minutes pushed myself into a small chamber and banged my tube as far into the sump as I found to gauge heading and how to best spend energy. It is a very tight sump the mud moved easily out of the way but it will take a bit of personal development to truly tackle this sump and push it further. The sump continues on a mud slope downwards, approximately 30cmx30cm. I would personally choose to remove or reposition more mud before continue as I was going head first. a feet first attempt will be made next time. I am happy with the progress made today, skills are further development and the knowledge of an open continuing sump is very exciting to be able to add to the maps.

A muddy dirty retreat was made to the aches and pains of cold water exhaustion. Thanks to those for the dive. Looking forward to getting wet once again. Will see this sump again in another couple of dives time.