When: Sunday 25th July 2021
Who: Mike S, Mike T, Tony (photo credit), Andy and myself
While the club had been a few times since it's discovery and opening ~10 years ago, this was my first trip down Shuttleworth Pot.
After meeting up for a quick breakfast at a cafe over the road from Inglesport (Inglesport cafe hasn't reopened yet following the pandemic restriction easing). Mike S suggested we go from Leck Fell side rather than Bull Pot Farm as that was the way they'd gone we all drove to Crowden Bridge and decamped into Andy & Tony's vans so parking wasn't an issue up on Leck Fell
After getting changed we walked across the fell and after following a small sheep track between the dense furns we found the entrance, rigged round the existing project ropes and went down
At the bottom we gingerly made our way down a scree slope, took off our SRT gear and went for an explore around the sump area. But it wasn't long before we went back up the scree slope, past the pitch and onwards to the main reason to do Shuttleworth - the formations!
Guided by a path marked by tape we went along admiring the delicate straw formations, calcite flows and gour pools. There were a few sections of crawling, but nothing too strenuous
At some point along the way we paused for a few minutes while some of us went down the minewt passage to see the newt skeletons (we found both). It was an entertaining sideshow and all who ventured down the slippery downwards tunnel managed to get back up without too much difficulty
When we got to the natural end of the cave we turned around and carefully made our way back out. It's an amazing cave with fantastic formations. Well worth the visit. We went to the Marton Arms in Ingleton for a drink before setting off home