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Beinn an Dubhaich Rising

Skye, Allt nan Leac, Invernessshire.

Rising. Obvious pool at foot of wall of granite on N side of floor of Allt nan Leac valley, here level & marshy. No above water passage. Underwater passage down tight boulder slope 45 degrees for 3m swings right & continues at 90 degrees for 9.1 m to enter side of large underwater passage. Starts transverse to direction of entry and appears to lead left & right. Examination 1980 failed to find continuation to left. Right hand route continues in tunnel 5 m wide, 2 m high. Line difficulties meant return after 20m Extensive series of flooded passages probable, connecting 2 sumps in Beinn an Dubhaich Cave. Through trip likely.

Face down wriggle feet-first down low, bouldery slope trailing dive line until, after a metre or so passage large enough to turn around to face right way in passage about a metre high and a couple of metres wide. Ceiling & walls coated in layer of fine silt, which quickly reduced visibility. Finned slowly forward examining walls & after 5.5 metres found passage coming in from left, heading upwards. Couple of metres later surfaced in low air-space continuation. Ducking under lip of rock emerged into bigger passage and to right low, dry tunnel seen leading off. Immediately in front mud bank rising from sump. Unfortunately laden with large diving bottles and fins unable to climb out of sump into open passage. Disappointed, slid back into water & followed dive line back into main underwater tunnel. Penetrated passage, in increasingly worse visibility, to some 23 metres from dive base. Large bank of mud rose from floor to 0.3 metres from roof. Quick squirm forward reduced visibility to nil. Back on surface I pondered what I'd seen. Where did side passage go, & more importantly had I made connection to Beinn an Dubhaich Cave? Dived rising again a short while later, without fins & wearing smaller tank. Quickly regained airspace able to climb mud bank into passage beyond. Removing tank, crawled along low passage until it enlarged to hands & knees proportions. Short distance later larger passage with deep water encountered. Named Caledonian Canal, straight passage formed along joint contained thigh deep crystal clear water. To right closed down almost immediately but left (upstream) continued for 10 metres until another sump reached. Using legs located large underwater passage however, smooth walls meant there was nothing to belay dive line to. I Headed back to the surface.

Alternative Names: Beinn na Dubhaich Cave [rising], Beinn na Dubhaich (uamh) [rising], Allt nan Leac Cave [rising]

Notes: See also Beinn na Dubhaich Cave.

First dived by Trevor Faulkner, Easter 1974.

Follow up by Alan Jeffreys (GSG), 25 October 1980.

Colin Pryer saw a small rising at Beinn an Dubhaich during 2003, interested in resurgence and returned with diving gear. Rising dived before by Trevor Faulkner in 1974 and Alan Jeffreys in 1980 but not pushed to conclusion. Both divers reported large underwater passage and one mentioned side passage. For various reasons both dives terminated before sump passed.

Hydrographic Feeds: Allt nan Leac

Hydrographic Resurgences: Allt nan Leac