Alt:
349mAlt:
349m
 |
The covered entrance to Top Sink with Ease Gill and Leck Fell beyond. |
The furthest upstream entrance to the EASE GILL
SYSTEM, situated in a dry oxbow of the beck on the true right bank
67m upstream from the sheepfold. A climb down leads into a tight
passage 
which quickly reaches a junction with a short inlet on
the left. From here the floor starts to cut down in a typical
meandering canyon to the head of the 18m WALRUS POT.
At the
foot the passage doubles back underneath itself and continues as an
awkward series of bends, hence the name PIE R2. The passage finally
starts to enlarge, and the 4.5m PENKNIFE PITCH is reached. At the
bottom of which is a junction, with WISDOM TOOTH
PASSAGE entering on the left. This can be followed via a short climb
up into a high and winding streamway which eventually chokes. Just
before end is a large inlet on the left and a chimney to the right
hand side can be climbed to an exposed step over the top of the
waterfall. After a short distance holes in the roof of the stream
passage lead up into SURPRISE PASSAGE which continues upstream for
50m to a choke. Back to the right a flat out crawl continues above
the holes in the floor. This is the far end of DIRE STRAITS which
connects via DANISH PASSAGE to the downstream end of BRADSHAW'S
PASSAGE.
The combined waters at the foot of the PENKNIFE
PITCH 
flow into the long,
winding, hands and knees crawl of BRADSHAW'S PASSAGE which eventually
emerges at the complex LIMERICK
JUNCTION
This is a series of abandoned oxbows at various
levels. If the upper level is followed for the last section of
BRADSHAW'S PASSAGE two passages lead of to the left soon to reunited
at the start of THE CRG EXTENSION, an old dry passage.Two climbs up
lead into a high passage which requires traversing in places to reach
a junction, with a climb down to a passage on the right. The other
passage leads to a steep, loose boulder slope up into a sandy chamber
from which a slit leads back up a further slope to a low crawl, This
emerges in COBWEB CHAMBER which has several choked inlets.
Down the climb another passage is gained which
eventually leads to a choke while a hole down leads into the very
tight BOOTH-EYRE CRAWL See original exploration
article.
If the lower level of BRADSHAW'S PASSAGE is followed for the last section a point is reached where one can stand up and the passage takes a sharp right turn. To the left a muddy slope of boulders rises up to a squeeze through a small hole. Here the passage splits and to the left is SKYWALKER PASSAGE, over 50m of muddy rift passage on a thin false floor with holes down into BRADSHAW'S PASSAGE below (Care!) To the right and down around a corner leads to the LOWER MOLAR PASSAGE along a traverse to a junction with an oxbow. To the right is a 3m climb up leading to DANISH PASSAGE, 100m of easy going to a chamber with climbs up to two choked inlets. Straight on at the junction leads to the UPPER MOLAR PASSAGE. An awkward climb and traverse leads to a fine passage followed to a sudden drop into another chamber. At the far end of this a 4m climb up leads to DIRE STRAITS which starts as a narrow awkward rift followed by a flat out crawl through to the UPPER WISDOM TOOTH PASSAGE extensions mentioned above.
From LIMERICK JUNCTION two routes lead into LIMERICK PASSAGE, and a traverse above the stream leads to a passage off to the right. This is OLD LIMERICK PASSAGE, and it can be followed along an abandoned route past several avens and chambers to a final crawl ending at a restriction somewhere in the vicinity of FAR EAST PASSAGE. At the first large aven a route at high level leads via rift passage with a squeeze leads to the top of FAIRY STEPS at the start of NAGASAKI CAVERN.
On upstream in LIMERICK PASSAGE leads past several obstacles to a complex of choked inlets off on either side. A long high level oxbow, The Grapes of Wrath, contains some fine formations.
Downstream in the main passage from LIMERICK JUNCTION is the connection with the rest of the EASE GILL SYSTEM