Can anyone point me in the direction of Cults Limestone mine in Cupar? I've had a look on Magic and the OS website and can't spot anything.

Cheers,

#6.

Hi numbersix, welcome to aditnow

Cults limestone mines & quarries -4 miles SSW of Cupar.
NGR. NO 340084.

What's your interest in this mine?

Thanks for the ref, Heb, I've found it on the map now.

My interest was piqued when I spotted the mine on the NAMHO trip list for this year. I fancy visiting it at some stage, my 5D needs a work out 🙂

My notes mention:
"A series of limestone workings in the `pillar and stall’ style. Modern excavations are spacious enough to drive along (!) but older workings lie in the woods south of the quarry plant. An extensive series of complex passages are partially flooded. The water levels appear to rise and fall due to weather conditions".

Whilst I would advise against taking a car underground, I would be most interested in a trip report.

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I popped up to Cults with my wife today. We had a look around where the old quarry was and then the old lime kilns. I dropped into the woods south of the newer lime works and found one way into the mine. I think this is one of the older entrances. The NAMHO conference website mentioned lots of coloured strings near the entrance so I assume I wasn't in the main one as I didn't see any strings. Heb's NGR puts the entrance further down the road than we went. I plan to go back next weekend and do it properly as we didn't have a lot of time today.

It's flooded above wellington depth just beyond a nasty fall, I didn't have waders on so I couldn't go any further. There was a small passage on the left through into a separate area which had pipes going from end to end.

I took a few photos, they're in the Cults album here. Because my wife was waiting I didn't have time to use the tripod and do lightpainting so they'll have to do 🙂

Looks a bit damp. Got job you left the car outside 🙂

Nice photos.

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If there hadn't been concrete blocks in the entrance you probably could have driven in, just not very far 😉 I'll post again once I've been in the other workings as well.

A flooded mine shouldn't be a problem for you number6...... 😉

DP

Not sure the maximum 25' lift on the Goddess would get me very far old boy 😉

Not sure the maximum 25' lift on the Goddess would get me very far old boy 😉

I'm sure a few Climax pumps in series might help.....

True, I'd need a BA set to survive the carbon monoxide though 🙂 If you hooked 3 of the LPPs together through a 6 way collecting head (which I have) you could pull 900 gallons a minute.

I don't suppose anyone has a plan of the mine do they? I'd love to try to work out a rough volume, just to get a theoretical pumping time for a bit of a giggle 🙂

Went back to Cults on Saturday for some more exploring. We found the entrance to the other section of the mine and it looks like it's pretty big down there.

As stated on the NAMHO conference website, the entrance does indeed contain a few coloured strings leading to various destinations following a police investigation, but I felt that 'festooned' was a slightly strong description. It was getting quite late on in the day by the time we got there so we thought we'd follow one of the strings and see where it took us. After about 15 minutes walk we got to the end of the string and the mine just kept on going in every direction so we followed it back out.

We plan to go back armed with laser measures, pencils and paper!

We also went back into the flooded entrance, this time armed with chest waders. We got about 20m into the water before it got too deep, hopefully later in the year the water level might drop a bit as it gets drier. Stepping into the side chamber that contains 3 water pipes we were able to venture further than I got last time. Ducking through a hole in the rock that the water pipes go through we emerged into a chamber that was flooded about halfway up. One could walk into the middle without the water coming over the tops of the waders.

Going back up beside the pipes we discovered that as they turned the corner you could actually squeeze under them and there was a passage that the pipes ran through. Water was actually flowing past us from the main body of the mine in a small stream under the pipes. We walked beside the pipes until they just stopped abruptly. Carrying on in the stream we followed the passage until we both suddenly sank up to our waists in orange mud! At this point we could see the passage carried on a lot further, but as it was impossible to tell how deep the mud was and how far it carried on we thought we'd stop for the day. We will go back in there when the water level is a bit lower and when getting to the muddy part we'll probably go with at least four of us and rope together so the leader can test for mud and get pulled out if necessary!

I didn't take the camera in with me because it was just a recce and frankly with all the water and mud I'm glad I didn't! I'll be getting one of the EWA Marine housings before taking a camera in there!

More news when we go back...

I finally got back to Cults at the weekend and took my camera. It's pretty big down there! We were underground for 5 hours and probably didn't even see 50% of it. It's pretty dangerous looking in places, although none of the falls looked very recent.

Almost all of these photos are handheld with flash, I will be going back with fewer people to do proper lightpainted, tripod supported photos.

We didn't get right into the deep parts of the mine because of deep mud, water, badly held up ceilings and bad air warnings.

I've posted these on another forum so some of you may have seen them already:











This next photos shows the chalk warning more clearly from the previous photo:

Would these photos have been better placed if in the Cults album? They will be easier to access in the future then, long after this thread has disappeared off the recent posts list.

Possibly, but getting multiple photos into the album in one go is a right pain. I felt that I'd at least get them up quickly for interested parties to see.

I think there is a "batch upload" facility for doing just that.

Possibly, but getting multiple photos into the album in one go is a right pain. I felt that I'd at least get them up quickly for interested parties to see.

As has already been said, they will only be 'available for interested parties to see' whilst this is a fresh thread. Try the bulk upload facilty : http://www.aditnow.co.uk/admin/batch.aspx?uid=0&fromitem=19658&desc=Cults+User+Album&tag=9 

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Thanks for the link. For future reference, where can you find the bulk uploader for different mine albums? I still can't spot it anywhere, only the single photo uploader.

Top left of the page, just under the header graphic, you'll see a block which says:

Quick Upload Links

Upload a Photograph
Batch Photo Upload
Upload a Document
Discuss in Forum

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Ah, so there is 🙂 Got the pics uploaded now too.