The weekend of the 1979 BCRA Conference, two members, Pybus and Edwards, dragged ladders over the heather towards Big Meanie, but, in true Pennine style, never reached their goal. Two other members, Batty and Walker, were already hard at it digging out Brunskill and managed to coerce the two 'meanies' to join them. After a few hours work, the 3 feet dia. shaft was sunk to a depth of 15 feet. More excavation revealed an open passage and a tight, sloping, 'bacon slicing' squeeze was passed to the head of a 15 foot pitch. Projections were hammered off to enable a descent into a small chamber where a 20 feet crawl led off into a too small keyhole shaped passage. Encouragement was close by, however, in the form of an achoing pitch, so the team retreated in high spirits.

Diplomatic relations with one ex-member, D.Brandon, had not then been severed, so he was asked to come and help with the removal of rock along with two members of the Yorkshire Ramblers, C. Beaur and H. Lomas. After a couple of drilling and banging trips the key turned in the lock and a 25 foot pitch dropped into a roomy chamber. Unfortunately, most of the vadose enlargement of the hole was lost down a narrow fissure in the floor. The just man-sized way on was a muddy, claustrophobic, phreatic tube. This was pushed for about 20 feet to a tight bend and again a very promising echo. Encouraged first by the echo and then by stones dropping down a pitch, the tube was enlarged to gain access to a 30 foot drop, but again the passage at its foot was too small. One member, Jim Birkett, philanthropically came up one Thursday night and cemented in a belay beam at the top of the 30 footer. Who said that for the exploration of under developed caves one needs to have an overdeveloped imagination, or is it the lack of such?

At this stage, the ex-member had become paranoid about pirates and would crawl the length of the fell hiding in the heather, the Y.R.C. were resolute, and the rest just laughed.

Beyond the pitch a tight passage led to a fork. The larger right hand branch was pushed for 30 feet to an acute bend. The left hand passage led down a sandy crawl to a miniature streamway with a 15 foot pitch to a tiny sump. This water was proved to come from the fissure higher up the pot.

The right hand crawl was then enlarged at critical points to enable work to be carried out at the end. The bend was passed to a 15 foot pitch with the ensuing passage impassable. Here it was decided to abndon exploration, the depth reached being 120 feet.

Thanks are extended to Harry Brunskill for allowing us access to the hole.

Brunskill Hole - description

The entrance is a fine waterworn shaft 21 ft. deep situated in the side of the sink hole depression. A descending crawl then leads to inlets from the sink. The passage descends steeply, passing a narrow section, to a 15 ft. pitch. From a small chamber the ensuing passage develops into a trenched bedding leading to a 25 ft. pitch. The landing is in a fine chamber where the vadose development disappears down an (excessively) narrow fissure. Onwards, the claustrophobic tube leads to a nice 30 ft. pitch. Just beyond, the bottom tube on the left meets the water lost in fissure chamber. This drops down a small 15 ft. pitch to a sump. Right at the junction a dry crawl gets progressively smaller, until, after a 15 ft. pitch, the way on is impassable.

Tackle