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Hodge Close
By Jon Richards and Steven Winstanley
Main Pool
Hodge close is an intimidating place. The drive out of Coniston lets you know just how remote these sites are. As you drive to the site you can park and see what you are letting yourself in for. The green slate quarry walls rise straight up from the water 50m to the trees. The quarry is an enclosed hole in the ground and at first there seems to be no way in other than to abseil or hump your gear down a steep loose path. The first delight is the £4.00 you have to pay to the local to take his iron post out of the path to let you park. Once you would have been able to park on the road but huge slate boulders now line the verges.
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Access is gained via a tunnel hidden at the end of a stream. This photo was taken at the height of summer as when we were there the tunnel had 60cm or more of water in it.
The tunnel is 2m high at its peak but the average height is 1.5m. Bearing in mind I am over 1.9m tall I really enjoyed the 100m stagger through the system with a twinset. The end of the tunnel opens into a chamber. Cold but sheltered from the rain. A plaque at the entrance to the quarry warns of the dangers of diving the close and its cave systems.
The fun has not ended. A scaffold ladder (not quite vertical fortunately) leads down to the quarry floor. Painful on the feet in drysuit boots carrying your rig and dangerous when wet. On to the diving. There are two main dives here. The first is the main quarry with its cave systems. The other dive is a leap of faith and then a sump.
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Main Quarry. The main quarry is currently 28m. I say currently as landslides have reduced the depth from 45m. Looking up at the walls you know this is not the last of the rubble to come down. There are a number of cars in the quarry and from the shore you can see the blue buoy attached to the transit van. This is convenient as a few metres away from the shot is the reason why we were there. The main tunnel system.
Below shows a rough diagram of the main quarry and cave system. All dimensions are unconfirmed.
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The water temperature was 8degC. The visibility was amazing. I had problems clearing my ears (I took three minutes to get to 9m) but could clearly see Steven waiting for me at 16m. The entrance to the system is at 25m. We checked gas supplies, back-up torches, did gas sharing drills and made ourselves familiar with each other's valves (I struggled to reach mine wearing two sets of thermals and an undersuit) and then went in.
Steven ran the line out. There is a fixed line for reference belayed well off the silt but we weren't going to trust out lives to it. Within a few metres of the entrance it was pitch black. Torch time. I could see Steven's torch beam lighting up the tunnel in front of him. Swinging my torch around I could see the tunnel was similar in size to the one we had crawled through to get to the quarry.
A strange phenomenon exists in the cavern. As your bubbles hit the roof they cause the water to vibrate. The most logical explanation for this is that the rock is falling in. Definitely not for the faint hearted, or easily panicked, but certainly adds to the relief of exiting the tunnel.
10m in there is an alcove that used to be another entrance to the system but a landslide has sealed it up.
At the 30m point we came to the first chamber. Steven ran the line and we left a lumi-stick at the junction. It was impossible to tell how big the chamber was as my torch did not light up the opposite wall. Steven went across the chamber and ascended to 18m. Here another escape route to the main quarry has been blocked by landfall.
I held the line but stayed near to the entrance of the chamber where I could see the lumi-stick (What! me worry?). Any thoughts of me going any deeper into the system were removed when I saw the skull and crossbones at the end of the chamber leading further into the system, which continues for another 90m.
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I decided to heed its message and head back to open water. I led out with Steven reeling the line in. It seemed ages before I could see the green glow of the tunnel exit. Even though we had run our own line in and followed directional arrows this was the only time I could say we were actually heading out of the cave. We exited the system just over ten minutes after we entered.
The rest of the dive was spent looking at the transit van, me practising deep stops and 3m/min ascents and Steven grinning madly as he found yet another cave. This one is 30m or so to the right (looking in) of the main system with the entrance at 4m. There has been a landslide that has partially blocked the entrance. Access would be gained by removing all your kit and possibly only with sidemounts from then on in.
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We surfaced after 38 minutes. I was starting to feel the cold and my fingers were starting to go numb despite the protection from my 5mm gloves. Steven pointed out that his repair work on his drysuit had not worked and he had been wet for the entire dive.
The hardest part of the dive was getting out of the water. After we had a breather it was time for dive two.
Hodge Close Sump
A tunnel leads off from the main quarry. This ends abruptly at a hole in the ground. Shining a torch in takes al the fun out of it. Steven simply put his regulator in and jumped. There was a loud splash in the darkness followed by a cackle. A troll guarding the cave? No it was Steven laughing demonically. I was next. There is a ladder leading down but this is only belayed at one point and swings like a saloon door. Only one thing for it. I kitted up and jumped.
Well that's what I like to think. I slipped as I threw my fins to Steven. It is only a 1.5m drop to the water but you don't know this fact with your torches nicely stowed and turned off. I hit the water and went down. I'm sure at some point I was supposed to surface. Then I realised I had forgotten to put my reg in before I fell. I have recently put my backup reg on a necklace and the theory worked as I simply put my head down and grabbed it. I was back on the surface within a second but in the darkness I had become disoriented.
Steven's cackles echoed around the chamber so I knew I was okay (Steven's comment: Yeah right!). I recovered my long hose and was (finally) ready. The chamber is 7m deep but there is an air space (fed from the tunnel) so it's not an overhead environment. A sump is clearly seen from the chamber entrance. Just as well as I could not have got back up the ladder. The sump is narrow and opens up into a pool detached from the main quarry. For those that don't like doing short bounce dives after a main dive you can do this as a surface swim followed by a quick duck under the sump.
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You then have to exit the pool, walk across the quarry floor, jump in the main quarry and swim across to where you started ten minutes ago. I managed to moan the entire time. Steven disagreed with me when I stated diving should be as effortless as possible.
I had a breather as Steven clambered up the scaffolding. It's only 3m or so but by this point I was knackered and took my time. Once more through the tunnel and back to the car park.
An adventurous and enjoyable dive site. As I sorted my kit out I couldn't help thinking that any minor injury here would rapidly become a major incident. One person would not be able to get a buddy out of Hodge Close.
Getting there.
The location is: Streetmap - Hodge Close
From the BSAC website: Signposted off Ambleside to Coniston road (map reference - Ordnance Survey map 'English Lakes SW area' 318017). The quarry owners will not grant permission for diving - but will not stop divers using the site at their own risk. Access to the lower car park and tunnel can be obtained by paying £4.00 per car at the house with the A Flag in the garden. Access to and from the water is challenging! Height above sea level - 155 metres.
Pay the man to move his fence post and park after crossing the stream. The stream leads to the quarry. There is no access to this site for wheelchair-bound divers.
Air Fills:
Capernwray is the nearest dive centre to the southern lakes. Located off junction 35 of the M6. .Air fills, Clean facilities, shop, Dive Quarry and licensed restaurant.
There are air stations nearer (it took us an hour from Hodge Close) but these are all BSAC branches and prior arrangements have to be made.
