Minotaurs Lair, Accrington - Visited By Ojay & AndyJ23UK.
2pm, we had now completed 3 drains, time for one more me thinks, before a much needed 3rd trip to complete the rest of Underground Accrington.
After exiting the Hall Of Giants and heading downstream of Hyndurn Water we decided to take a look at Minotaurs Lair, essentially a tributary that flows from Tinker Brook and under the once Rishton reservoir.
The Infall was a 10ft Brick/Stone arch which gave way to an unimproved bedrock and stream bed floor,
it was also rocky as f@@k and difficult to traverse through,
although it was only a short distance it took just over an hour all told to reach the Outfall, mainly due to the treacherous conditions and the fact we stopped once or twice to rest our ankles & dick around with cameras along the way
Around 150 yards in the brick tunnel came to an abrupt end, ahead was a much narrower rocky tunnel, almost cave like, this was obviously not of natural erosion, but more man made, possibly blasted or picked, although no real evidence to suggest either
The next section was really tricky, finding somewhere to briefly step whilst trying to move forward proved a challenge
It was also quite deep in parts, and I lost my balance once or twice and nearly went for a swim
I managed to get one shot in the middle of this section, SORRY SHAKEY PHOTO, it was real deep in here, and I was clung to the rock face whilst balancing my camera on a small ledge, as getting my tripod out here was not an option
After what seemed like ages we could see daylight (yay),
the rock blast tunnel once again gave way to a much bigger brick arch. After clambering over the assortment of washed up Accrington,
we were now able to climb out of the stream which provided an opportunity to get a few more piccy's before heading out
It was now 3pm, we had a long mooch back to the car, cold wet and covered in shite, and now it had started to piss down!
We agreed to call it a day, inevitably we will be back soon.....
Until then, thanks for looking
2pm, we had now completed 3 drains, time for one more me thinks, before a much needed 3rd trip to complete the rest of Underground Accrington.
After exiting the Hall Of Giants and heading downstream of Hyndurn Water we decided to take a look at Minotaurs Lair, essentially a tributary that flows from Tinker Brook and under the once Rishton reservoir.
The Infall was a 10ft Brick/Stone arch which gave way to an unimproved bedrock and stream bed floor,
it was also rocky as f@@k and difficult to traverse through,
although it was only a short distance it took just over an hour all told to reach the Outfall, mainly due to the treacherous conditions and the fact we stopped once or twice to rest our ankles & dick around with cameras along the way
Around 150 yards in the brick tunnel came to an abrupt end, ahead was a much narrower rocky tunnel, almost cave like, this was obviously not of natural erosion, but more man made, possibly blasted or picked, although no real evidence to suggest either
The next section was really tricky, finding somewhere to briefly step whilst trying to move forward proved a challenge
It was also quite deep in parts, and I lost my balance once or twice and nearly went for a swim
I managed to get one shot in the middle of this section, SORRY SHAKEY PHOTO, it was real deep in here, and I was clung to the rock face whilst balancing my camera on a small ledge, as getting my tripod out here was not an option
After what seemed like ages we could see daylight (yay),
the rock blast tunnel once again gave way to a much bigger brick arch. After clambering over the assortment of washed up Accrington,
we were now able to climb out of the stream which provided an opportunity to get a few more piccy's before heading out
It was now 3pm, we had a long mooch back to the car, cold wet and covered in shite, and now it had started to piss down!
We agreed to call it a day, inevitably we will be back soon.....
Until then, thanks for looking
