19th March 2003
People present - Martin Donaldson, Adam Cooper
After meeting in Helmsley we drove to Revaux Abbey to gain permission from the land owner, failing that due to no one home we decided that we would leave a note in a vehicle window simply for safety reasons, after a brief chat we got changed and headed for the caves which were only a short distance away.
I decide that we would do the shorter of the two first Ashberry 1, sliding down the entrance slope we made our way in through a tight rift to start then Adam spotted a bat roosting in the roof although it never hung about for long so we carried on and soon we were on to the head of a 30ft pitch, as I forgot my srt kit we took the climb down through Dowsons route to bypass it ,this lands in a big rift at the bottom of the pitch, to the end was a huge boulder choke which ended in a tight squeeze(no Adam you cant get through there),after 2 attempts I took off my helmet and got through to check out what lied behind but it ended soon after at another boulder choke, at this point we decided to make our way out and into Ashberry 2.
On a previous visit to this cave almost a year ago I found a tree in the surrounding woodland and rammed it down the entrance shaft to climb down, although it was a bit rotten on this visit it still proved to be a good natural ladder.
After a quick break in the entrance we headed in it was a VERY low crawl under a huge slab which quickly opened out into a crawling size passage we tried on getting to the deepest point in the system but this was definitely not going to be so it is like a maze in there, on a previous visit there with Darren we found the way to the bottom with no trouble at all but not this time it felt as if we were going round in circles this cave is very complex indeed(and did I mention MUDDY)after tiredness got the better of us and we had decide on going out I found the way on but we decided that we would have a go at a later date.
Adam had a reply from Sheffield Uni about the tooth pictured below that he sent to them - Thanks for sending the tooth from Ashberry Windypit II. I have identified the specimen as an upper molar from a red deer, Cervus elephas. I imagine that the species is not common in the area today, so it is likely to be at least a few hundred years old and perhaps much older.