Poachers Cave - the illegal dig

An event has occurred which, interestingly, suggests that there is a possibility that the dig we created for the back end of the car park for Poachers cave was not actually on SSSI land.

I must stress that this is only a possibility.

The evidence to this is a map that Les_W has posted on our website in answer the River Alyn Sinks which clearly show that the "holes" in the river bed where we have been poking around are NOT SSSI.

Quite incidently, the map also shows the Poachers car park and, teasiningly, a area beyond the car park which is not SSSI and which might be where we were digging.

Les_W's map is in this thread ...

http://forum.ucet.org.uk/caving-f16/river-alyn-sink-holes-new-caves-t260.htm



Ian

No one got any thoughts as to whether the hole we dug was inside or outside that "red" line then ?



Ian

From what I can see the SSSI boundary skirts around the car park area. Hence any digging outside of the car park would be digging in the SSSI.

It is interesting to see that the riverbed along the side of the caravan park is not included. I don't know what if any swallow holes there are there, but before starting any digs I would check with CCW staff in the Mold office to ensure that there have not been any mistakes made when digitising the boundaries .. it does happen.

If you are allowed, then get digging and find a way into the master cave :-)

Karl

Just like to remind you that given the extent of the SSSI, there is the probability that anything you find will connect to something in (under) the SSSI. I don't know what the implications are but this could be deemed a PDO and you could fall foul of the law/CCW.

You ought to speak to your local CCW officer, get him on side and see what can be achieved. It is much better he is your friend than your enemy.

Good advice ......

We have no plans to "dig" the sink holes. It is more than likely they are fractures that lead into Poachers cave one way or another - it's just a tease to think that they might be going somewhere else.

If anyhting changes and we do have a "prod", we will liaise with the CCW first as we have done recently on two other issues.

Hope your leg is better Karl and thanks Les

Ian