Upper Cradle 1,2 & 3

Trip Report 31st December 2025

Nathaniel, Alex, Siofra, Peter & Ray

What better way for a year to finish than to build upon the old and prepare for the future.

This trip started from a simple phone call to another cave diving buddy wherein to possibilities of diving over the new year period came up. After a previous successful mission through Upstream Sump 1 previously with Ray I knew that the sump was a great training ground and development site for sump diving. The carry in is relatively easy walking streamway, with simple navigation and beautiful formations. The dive through sump 1 is spacious for Fermanagh with recently laid dive line present and interesting section beyond the sump. Last time I was only able to pass sump 1, mostly becasue of the challenge of carrying cylinders up the streamway in Upper Cradle 2 - the section beyond Sump 1.

And so the plan started developing, we were going to need to get 2 divers through Sump 1 to carry to gain sump 2 which had not been dived since 2010. I had originally wanted to get 3 divers through sump 1 since Upper Cradle 2 is composed of a narrow canyon 10m high with 12 waterfalls to climb. One of the divers had to pull out premtively and I realised that if the divers brought Tackle bags through the sump with them it would be possible for both divers to carry a cylinder each up independently.

Carrying equipment for 2 divers is a labourious process, both divers have 3 bundles. 2 bottles and one bucket of equipment each. This makes for 6 trips minimum. Given my plan was to explore beyond the sump and try and push a previous connection as far as possible I opted to bring a 3rd cylinder, just to add to the carry. We had 3 GLORIOUS cavers agree to assist us in sherpaing this haul through the 300m of streamway to the sump. Their help is immensely appreciated, we were able to spread the load so that most only had one journey in and out of the cave! Thank you.

Alex and I both entered the water at 13:50. giving notice of return in 2.5hrs. The first sump is a nice wide phreatic tube with a cobbled floor. The line laid by Tony Setton previously has taken some wear over the years and was loose and winding in some areas. As I pasased over these I tidied the line up by making coils of the excess and zip tying them sealed. Therre is an intersect with Martyn Farrs old orange washing line which we both marked our exit side with respective clothes pin and line arrow. As we descent past -8m depth into the deeper section (-11m) there is quite a noticable restriction, wearing a drysuit this restirction causes all of the air to rise to the feet and makes finning quite challenging. We passed the Northern way, I can see the walls opening away on the right hand side and there is some of Farrs old line wrapped on some rocks in its direction but we continuned along the line into the sump of Upper Cradle 2.

Upon surfacing, we staged some of our equipment. Alex removed his harnes and bottles and put them high up on a shelf and I dropped my 12 litre cylinder with his equipment. We bagged up both of my bottles and fins and began our trek through Upper cradle 2.

The Cave here is drastically different from the previous upper cradle. The river narrows to about 1-2m wide running along smooth river bed, only a couple of centimetres deep (<30cm). Above us lie impressive cliffs of the canyon formed by the river. Easily over 10m high in areas and you can see and interweaving of passages above.

The streamway gradually climbs over a series of 12 or so cascades each about a metre or more in height. The limestone is intersparsed with churt and sharp edges to snag your equipment on, and shreds gloves and boots as you climb over it. The passage widens then and forms into a chamber with a series of large boulders on the floor with the river weaving between them and on the far side we reach a smal pebbled beach for Sump 2.

I had visited sump 2 last time and seen that the line was broken out of it. I expected there to be barely any line in the sump since it was not due to be a long one, and a main source of outflow if there was no line it meant it had to have sheared from above. I tied in my 140m line and set off, allowing myself 1hour for Alex waiting on the other side. The sump was far messier than I expected, there was both sets of Farr's line and Arthur's line interwoven and loose all over the place. The sump is a boulder choke with a series of very tight squeezes. I passed one tighter restriction to come into a wall and silt bank. I placed a silt screw in and turned right. I was then able to see the washing line and polyprop line both rising to the surface and I soon surfaced in Upper Cradle 3. It took an embarrassing amount of time to tie-off and cut my line to where I was satified with the security of it. I looked around and was faced with a sand bank. I spent several minutes exploring different tubes in and around this sand bank, cursing that the river must have changed drastically since its last visit. Checking my compass I found I was instead facing North, the wrong direction. I tried climbing a waterfall and aven and had a churt edge I had my weight supported on break away and I took a big tumble back into the deep water of the sump, directly onto my fresh dive line.

Everything seemed secure so I decided to cross the canal the sump had surfaced in. It is a curious u shaped passage that terminated in a nice rock beach. Depositing my cylinders here I went on by foot to explore further in the chamber.

Again this section is noticably different than the previous 2. It is formed from a similarly sized phreatic tube as upper cradle 1, but filled to the brim with a boulder choke. route finding through it is simple and opens briefly to come into a streamway intersecting the cave at a perpendicular angle. to the east the sound of water can be heard, flowing downstream. To the west is sump 3a. This sump section looks very similar to Pollbwee, Bruces Pot, Monastir sink formation, being rift passes with parralell rifts. the rift above is about 1m wide and has air above it for 50m until it sumps completely. I swam along noting short surveying notes. There was a side passage with a slight opening. Originally I thought the line here too was broken since it is no longer present in Monastir sink, but I was able to locate line sinking early in the sump into the darkness.

I pased sump 3a to visit sump 3b. Again passing boulder choke to arrive. The beach here is formed of a large gravel mound, 4m high down to static water. The air smells stale and the water is much darker here. 3b is not as active as the rest of the cave. However 2 sets of dive line are visible just slightly buried by the silt.

I had not given myself enough of a leway for exploration and was running short on verbal expectation time. I returned back throguh sump 2 exactly on the hour minute. and then we both returned through sump 1 exactly 3 hours after having passed through. On my return through sump 2 I discovered in my fall I had dislodged my silt screw, I took a moment to replace it as best I could but this resulted in a complete silt out. The exit side of the line was slack and as I moved along it I came into a line trap, there the line went through rocks that I could not fit. I had the presence of mind to realise that most likely it had been pulled to the right shortening the corner I had taken and I moved while holding the line until I was able to locate the same larger restritction to pass. While descending Upper cradle 2's cascades, Alex sat to slide down one of the cascades and proceeded to tear a sizable hole in his drysuit leg. the sloshing of his suit could be heard echoing from the walls.

We returned to an empty sump, only to walk back along the cave to locate an all out hotel setup, cozy fire lit inside a mirage of tin foil blankets formed into a heated tent. Outside, stoves boiling coffee's and mediocre noodles! Like wet dogs we were denied entry to the fort of warmth less our wet bodies absorb too much of the sparse heat available. Thankfully before long camp was dekitted and the rest of our equipment scurried away back to the cave enterance. Some of our sherpas had the misfortune of taking a post sauna dip by venturing into deep waters of the cave passage! Good for the heart I say!

Thank you the the sherpas for their efforts, it really made the entire process much more managable as I am sure all could see our exhaustion after the carry. A great expedition, with much more ambition left undone.