Jug Holes Cave/Mine Part II - Derbyshire - Sept 2021
I did say we would be back...
This report is mainly aimed at people who want to explore the undocumented parts... If you have not intention of doing so, just stay for the photos.
Background/History
The Jug Holes system comprises an upper series of predominantly natural caverns, and a lower series that has been more extensively modified by mining activity. The lower Series consists of a number of large phreatic chambers connected by smaller mined passages. ln addition to natural features, generations of miners have left their marks sometimes literally, and pick marks and candle soot can be found in many places. This set of passages contains a great variety of interesting features. Each of the large natural chambers, named `Water Caverns' to distinguish them from mined passages and mineralised pipe caverns has been modified to a greater or lesser extent by miners. Jug Holes is entered via a natural collapse or by a lower adit entrance. The caves are developed on Jug Holes Pipe, which has a north-south trend and is developed within 28m of Brigantian limestone (Monsal Dale Lower Limestone) between the Upper and Lower Matlock Lavas. The mineralisation consists of replacement fluorite flats and void fillings consisting of fluorite, calcite, baryte and galena - Mining took place here mainly in the early to mid 20th century and was to extract fluorspar and then eventually lead.
(My composite - it's not particularly helpful though)
---------------------------------------
Last night I did a sketch of the undocumented parts. I drew it without the 1977 survey to avoid any confirmation bias, (and then added it in after).
This covers the entirety of the undocumented parts (except for one part denoted by a "?" however I'm 90% sure it's a dead end).
---------------------------------------
Pale Red = Decline
Strong red = Winze to a lower level (rope was not required but would be advisable)
Pale blue = Incline
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer; This was not done with any measuring tape or bearings. It was done by memory.
Having said that, I DO believe that it's still fairly accurate. Take everything with a grain of salt.
Use at your own risk.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Explore
@Jl.urbex and I had left Jug Holes last week with more questions than answers... and since then, we had spent hours trying to piece together maps and surveys to figure it out... We came up with nothing.
Unfortunately, @Jl.urbex and I are inflicted with similar personalities and the riddle of Jug Holes was not going to beat us... We had to go back.
The trip was very last minute and we didn't even discuss our aims for the day. The ropes for a handline hadn't arrived, and @Jl.urbex hadn't even got around to cleaning some of his gear from the last trip.
To make matters worse, upon entering the access road, the side-wall of my tyre blew out after a vicious pothole.
We quickly changed it for a spare, but I was tired and deflated before even beginning the explore...
We wasted another 30mins trying to find the entrance to the upper series. The maps were not particularly helpful if you don't know where the shaft actually is. We spent half and hour climbing through the undergrowth on the surface looking for a metal grate. I'd have paid good money for someone to put me out of my misery and shown us what we were missing. Eventually we found it, but it wasn't what we were expecting... It's not obvious, but nothing is obvious at this place. We decided that the entrance pitch to the upper series was probably best tackled with a rope since getting back out would likely be a challenge.
Speaking of 'pitches best tackled with ropes', we decided to enter the lower series via the abseil pitch (Next to the "1" label) - without abseiling... or rope.
It can be done with care.
(My descent)
(Pic - Jl.urbex)
(I reached the bottom without falling, things were looking up)
We worked our way down into the 3rd Water Cavern. It was our first time arriving to the cavern from that direction but it confirmed one thing; we HAD explored undocumented parts of the mine system on our last trip.
Finally the map made sense to us... but we were now going off-piste and had no idea what lay in store for us...
After you reach the 3rd Water Cavern, it is possible to turn left and enter the undocumented parts.
This takes you through a few short squeezes, over a few rocks and into a small room.
This room leads to a small archway round to your left; presenting you with a ginged incline to the right (rotten beams above and ultimately a dead end) OR a ginged 1.5-2m drop to a lower level on the right.
(Yours truly sat on the aforementioned dead-end incline and under the rotten beams)
(Pic by Jl.urbex)
(The whole mine was like this - be conscious of your ceiling clearance at all times. If in doubt, crawl)
We then slid down the short winze to the lower levels.
("Rope would be nice" on the map)
This is where you will be faced with a R/L dilemma.
'Choose your own adventure'
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you decide to turn right, scroll down quite a bit.
If you decide to turn left, continue reading from here.
-------------------------------------------------------------
You turn left
You follow the ginged adit until you reach a smallish room.
Immediately to your left there is a small tunnel on an incline. There are no beams anymore but you can see where they once were.
You slowly crawl up the clay passage.
It takes you to a room with clear evidence of mining and the beginnings of a nice calcite deposit.
The room also has a small clay tunnel sloping down, almost parallel to the passage in, however it does not lead anywhere.
(Calcite deposit (?) Some areas of the mine contain some very rusty coloured clay)
You go back down the clay passage and come across a tight passage near the ceiling. This leads up and round the right, however we were not able to explore this route.
It's very very likely that it's a dead end. But hey, someone get back to me on that one...
It's marked as an "?" on my map.
There is also a small hole which leads to a steep ginged decline.
You enter the hole and follow the decline down.
There's a very small dead end to the right on the decline and a floor at the base of the decline.
The floor has a hole wide enough to fall down - you peer down the hole and see a drop of a few meters, then a winze with a scaff bar. You can't see the bottom without going over the hole...
You realise that "the floor" is likely completely unsupported, and you're about to walk above a 5m+ drop, above an unknown winze below.
Hmmm.... Do I really want to walk across here? Do I even want to put my foot down?
You decide to look fate in the eye and dare him to do something. Nothing happens
You walk across the floor to the narrow ginged adit on the otherside and begin crawling through it
For the first time in the mine, you see vertical wooden "supports"
and it's kind of creepy...
Aside from the vertical supports. You also see wooden supports on the ground.
You now have no idea what you are walking above.
You slowly and carefully make your way through this section. Being sure not to touch any of the supports and trying to stay away from the middle of the floor.
You make it to the other side
Straight ahead of you is a large room and to your right is a small ginged adit propped up with more wooden supports.
You go straight.
You hop down the ledge into the clay room.
There's a fairly tight chute at the end of the room.. (top of my map)
it's full of loose clay from collapses but it might lead somewhere?
You slowly slide down it and follow it for a few metres only to find it's a dead end. Of course...
(Looking up at @Jl.urbex from down the clay chute. I was slightly relieved it was a dead end)
We then headed back and took a left before the vertical supports.
This took us to a ginged adit.
This adit led to the winze that could be seen through the hole in the floor. It also lead to an adit which had collapsed.
The collapsed adit (the most eastern part of my map)
(More rotten vertical and horizontal supports. No wonder the adit had collapsed at the end)
(@Jl.urbex examining the winze)
You climb across the winze using the rusted rail. It leads to another T junction.
If you follow the incline to the left = dead end.
If you go down the decline to your right and find that it links up to the bottom of the winze (hard to draw on the map)
Further down the decline you get to another T-junction (!) Both ends lead to a dead end. (Possible collapses)
Everything led to a dead end (except you)
Congrats, you survived
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You turn right
Very quickly you see a moderate incline on the right, and on the left you see a passage near the floor.
SPOILER ALERT: they connect..
(This incline has a nasty boulder balancing precariously near a wooden beam)
(It's hard to tell from the photo, but this is look up the incline.)
You follow the incline up, being very careful not to knock anything loose. Its very slippery and without many things to hold onto.
You reach the top and see a small climb up to a room to your right and slighly behind you. In front of you is a half ginged adit.
You go into the room to your right and it seems like it's primarily comprised of collapsed boulder from an upper chamber. (Most westward area of my map)
You follow the half ginged adit.
There is a strong draught coming from somewhere...
You follow the draught around the corner and quickly realise that the floor is pretty fresh and the ceiling is slowly crumbling...
At the end of this adit, there is only one way to continue and my god it's tight....
("Gnats Arse Pass")
(Pic credit - @Jl.urbex)
After barely squeezing through, you follow the draught about 4m and it's another dead end.
It looked like a shaft had potentially collapsed from above.
It also looked like I was standing above a winze that had been filled with deads.
The draught presumably came from the vertical area above me but it was hard to pinpoint where...
Congrats you survived.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We headed back into the 3rd Water Cavern and hand-climbed up the abseil shaft.
By now, we were covered in mud and this wasn't the brightest idea without ropes, very slippery shoes, and with backpacks on, but we made it back up to the top without incident.
Another great day in the caves followed by a long and boring drive home with a 50mph limit (due to the spare tyre)
Next time - the Upper Series of Jug Holes....
I did say we would be back...
This report is mainly aimed at people who want to explore the undocumented parts... If you have not intention of doing so, just stay for the photos.
Background/History
The Jug Holes system comprises an upper series of predominantly natural caverns, and a lower series that has been more extensively modified by mining activity. The lower Series consists of a number of large phreatic chambers connected by smaller mined passages. ln addition to natural features, generations of miners have left their marks sometimes literally, and pick marks and candle soot can be found in many places. This set of passages contains a great variety of interesting features. Each of the large natural chambers, named `Water Caverns' to distinguish them from mined passages and mineralised pipe caverns has been modified to a greater or lesser extent by miners. Jug Holes is entered via a natural collapse or by a lower adit entrance. The caves are developed on Jug Holes Pipe, which has a north-south trend and is developed within 28m of Brigantian limestone (Monsal Dale Lower Limestone) between the Upper and Lower Matlock Lavas. The mineralisation consists of replacement fluorite flats and void fillings consisting of fluorite, calcite, baryte and galena - Mining took place here mainly in the early to mid 20th century and was to extract fluorspar and then eventually lead.
(My composite - it's not particularly helpful though)
---------------------------------------
Last night I did a sketch of the undocumented parts. I drew it without the 1977 survey to avoid any confirmation bias, (and then added it in after).
This covers the entirety of the undocumented parts (except for one part denoted by a "?" however I'm 90% sure it's a dead end).
---------------------------------------
Pale Red = Decline
Strong red = Winze to a lower level (rope was not required but would be advisable)
Pale blue = Incline
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer; This was not done with any measuring tape or bearings. It was done by memory.
Having said that, I DO believe that it's still fairly accurate. Take everything with a grain of salt.
Use at your own risk.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Explore
@Jl.urbex and I had left Jug Holes last week with more questions than answers... and since then, we had spent hours trying to piece together maps and surveys to figure it out... We came up with nothing.
Unfortunately, @Jl.urbex and I are inflicted with similar personalities and the riddle of Jug Holes was not going to beat us... We had to go back.
The trip was very last minute and we didn't even discuss our aims for the day. The ropes for a handline hadn't arrived, and @Jl.urbex hadn't even got around to cleaning some of his gear from the last trip.
To make matters worse, upon entering the access road, the side-wall of my tyre blew out after a vicious pothole.
We quickly changed it for a spare, but I was tired and deflated before even beginning the explore...
We wasted another 30mins trying to find the entrance to the upper series. The maps were not particularly helpful if you don't know where the shaft actually is. We spent half and hour climbing through the undergrowth on the surface looking for a metal grate. I'd have paid good money for someone to put me out of my misery and shown us what we were missing. Eventually we found it, but it wasn't what we were expecting... It's not obvious, but nothing is obvious at this place. We decided that the entrance pitch to the upper series was probably best tackled with a rope since getting back out would likely be a challenge.
Speaking of 'pitches best tackled with ropes', we decided to enter the lower series via the abseil pitch (Next to the "1" label) - without abseiling... or rope.
It can be done with care.
(My descent)
(Pic - Jl.urbex)
(I reached the bottom without falling, things were looking up)
We worked our way down into the 3rd Water Cavern. It was our first time arriving to the cavern from that direction but it confirmed one thing; we HAD explored undocumented parts of the mine system on our last trip.
Finally the map made sense to us... but we were now going off-piste and had no idea what lay in store for us...
After you reach the 3rd Water Cavern, it is possible to turn left and enter the undocumented parts.
This takes you through a few short squeezes, over a few rocks and into a small room.
This room leads to a small archway round to your left; presenting you with a ginged incline to the right (rotten beams above and ultimately a dead end) OR a ginged 1.5-2m drop to a lower level on the right.
(Yours truly sat on the aforementioned dead-end incline and under the rotten beams)
(Pic by Jl.urbex)
(The whole mine was like this - be conscious of your ceiling clearance at all times. If in doubt, crawl)
We then slid down the short winze to the lower levels.
("Rope would be nice" on the map)
This is where you will be faced with a R/L dilemma.
'Choose your own adventure'
-------------------------------------------------------------
If you decide to turn right, scroll down quite a bit.
If you decide to turn left, continue reading from here.
-------------------------------------------------------------
You turn left
You follow the ginged adit until you reach a smallish room.
Immediately to your left there is a small tunnel on an incline. There are no beams anymore but you can see where they once were.
You slowly crawl up the clay passage.
It takes you to a room with clear evidence of mining and the beginnings of a nice calcite deposit.
The room also has a small clay tunnel sloping down, almost parallel to the passage in, however it does not lead anywhere.
(Calcite deposit (?) Some areas of the mine contain some very rusty coloured clay)
You go back down the clay passage and come across a tight passage near the ceiling. This leads up and round the right, however we were not able to explore this route.
It's very very likely that it's a dead end. But hey, someone get back to me on that one...
It's marked as an "?" on my map.
There is also a small hole which leads to a steep ginged decline.
You enter the hole and follow the decline down.
There's a very small dead end to the right on the decline and a floor at the base of the decline.
The floor has a hole wide enough to fall down - you peer down the hole and see a drop of a few meters, then a winze with a scaff bar. You can't see the bottom without going over the hole...
You realise that "the floor" is likely completely unsupported, and you're about to walk above a 5m+ drop, above an unknown winze below.
Hmmm.... Do I really want to walk across here? Do I even want to put my foot down?
You decide to look fate in the eye and dare him to do something. Nothing happens
You walk across the floor to the narrow ginged adit on the otherside and begin crawling through it
For the first time in the mine, you see vertical wooden "supports"
and it's kind of creepy...
Aside from the vertical supports. You also see wooden supports on the ground.
You now have no idea what you are walking above.
You slowly and carefully make your way through this section. Being sure not to touch any of the supports and trying to stay away from the middle of the floor.
You make it to the other side
Straight ahead of you is a large room and to your right is a small ginged adit propped up with more wooden supports.
You go straight.
You hop down the ledge into the clay room.
There's a fairly tight chute at the end of the room.. (top of my map)
it's full of loose clay from collapses but it might lead somewhere?
You slowly slide down it and follow it for a few metres only to find it's a dead end. Of course...
(Looking up at @Jl.urbex from down the clay chute. I was slightly relieved it was a dead end)
We then headed back and took a left before the vertical supports.
This took us to a ginged adit.
This adit led to the winze that could be seen through the hole in the floor. It also lead to an adit which had collapsed.
The collapsed adit (the most eastern part of my map)
(More rotten vertical and horizontal supports. No wonder the adit had collapsed at the end)
(@Jl.urbex examining the winze)
You climb across the winze using the rusted rail. It leads to another T junction.
If you follow the incline to the left = dead end.
If you go down the decline to your right and find that it links up to the bottom of the winze (hard to draw on the map)
Further down the decline you get to another T-junction (!) Both ends lead to a dead end. (Possible collapses)
Everything led to a dead end (except you)
Congrats, you survived
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You turn right
Very quickly you see a moderate incline on the right, and on the left you see a passage near the floor.
SPOILER ALERT: they connect..
(This incline has a nasty boulder balancing precariously near a wooden beam)
(It's hard to tell from the photo, but this is look up the incline.)
You follow the incline up, being very careful not to knock anything loose. Its very slippery and without many things to hold onto.
You reach the top and see a small climb up to a room to your right and slighly behind you. In front of you is a half ginged adit.
You go into the room to your right and it seems like it's primarily comprised of collapsed boulder from an upper chamber. (Most westward area of my map)
You follow the half ginged adit.
There is a strong draught coming from somewhere...
You follow the draught around the corner and quickly realise that the floor is pretty fresh and the ceiling is slowly crumbling...
At the end of this adit, there is only one way to continue and my god it's tight....
("Gnats Arse Pass")
(Pic credit - @Jl.urbex)
After barely squeezing through, you follow the draught about 4m and it's another dead end.
It looked like a shaft had potentially collapsed from above.
It also looked like I was standing above a winze that had been filled with deads.
The draught presumably came from the vertical area above me but it was hard to pinpoint where...
Congrats you survived.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We headed back into the 3rd Water Cavern and hand-climbed up the abseil shaft.
By now, we were covered in mud and this wasn't the brightest idea without ropes, very slippery shoes, and with backpacks on, but we made it back up to the top without incident.
Another great day in the caves followed by a long and boring drive home with a 50mph limit (due to the spare tyre)
Next time - the Upper Series of Jug Holes....
