June 22, 2010 in News & Updates by DCS Admin

Hodge Close Quarry Dive Review By Gary Cutter

Hodge Close Quarry is just one of many slate workings in the Tilberthwaite Valley, between Langdale and Coniston and was worked on a large scale from the 19th century to small scale in the early 1960s. It’s a massively deep excavation of light green coloured slate, not a huge area, but sheer-sided and unfenced. The original worked depth was reported to be about 100m below ground level although rock falls have reduced this. The quarry is now flooded to about 28m, leaving the green slate quarry walls rising a further 50m or so straight up to the trees. The sheer face above water level is a favourite with abseilers and climbers. Underwater there are a number of tunnels and caverns. One at 24m leads to three large chambers, while others are known to exist but have become blocked by rockfalls. An unexplored tunnel is reported to exist at around 4m. A number of divers have lost their lives in Hodge Close Quarry, mainly as the result of getting lost in the underwater tunnels.
Awesome is a much misused word but as Techie Tim and me peeped tentatively over the edge of Hodge Close quarry at the green water a long long way below surrounded by vast sheer slate walls ‘awesome’ in it’s most literal sense is what it was. We has a quick reccy on foot and eventually found the secret car park down a rough track on the other side of the hill to the quarry.
This has to be one of the most bizarrely interesting entries to a dive site anywhere. The way in is through a 100m semi flooded tunnel, about 1.5m wide, low at the entry point but then it gets a bit higher, but not quite high to avoid cracking your head on the ceiling in places. It’s pitch black except for the symbolic light at the end of the tunnel 100m away so a torch is a good idea. The tunnel emerges into a small cave with a rickety scaffolding ladder taking you down to a path leading to an entry point at the water’s edge. Impressive is an understatement.
Three more gruelling return journeys and we’d transported all our kit to the little rocky entry point. It had taken about two hours of physical labour to get this far so we had a can of Fanta to celebrate.
We kitted up and dropped into the green water, although it was more like a murky grey as we descended past the vertical slate walls. Then suddenly the temperature dropped to 7 degrees, the visibility cleared and we could see the bottom, or more correctly loads of old cars and other debris on the bottom. The plan was to follow the perimeter of the quarry as best we could, find the dreaded tunnels, have a look inside but no more, then return.
Underwater there are HUGE rocks everywhere which makes it a bit difficult to navigate, but the lake itself isn’t that big so it doesn’t take too long to get orientated. We swam around the rocks and cars and vans and other rubbish and eventually there it was, a squareish hole in the quarry wall at 25m, with lines leading off into the darkness inside the rock. Not a nice place.
We swam up to the shallow end, back to the deep end again, around the rocks, had another look at the tunnel, and then it was time to go up. Exit was a bit difficult over the slippery rocks but with a quick undignified crawl, scramble and stagger we were out. 40mins dive time, 28m max depth. De kit, back up to the path, up the ladder (not easy with a 15l tank over your shoulder), through the cave, back through the flooded tunnel, suit unzip, get car key to open car get full tank, lock car, suit rezip, back through the flooded tunnel, down the ladder (not easy etc etc) along the path…you get the picture.
So we sat on the rocks and ate our lunch (thanks Penny). We watched some climbers talking about climbing but not actually doing much climbing, and got ready for the next dive…but that’s another story.

Part Two

So there we were, sitting on the rocks eating our lunch, watching the climbers not climbing. We’d just done the Hodge Close quarry lake and had the new tanks ready for the second dive. This time we were going into the cavern, which is at the end of a 50m tunnel close to water level on the lakeside. You walk in, then after 20m or so turn right for another 30m or so. Then the interesting bit – it ends abruptly at a hole in the ground leading to the blackest darkness full of the blackest creepiest water obviously full of the nastiest monsters you can imagine in your wildest nightmares. There is a ladder but you just know it’s been bitten off below water level so we didn’t trust that. We turned the torches off for a few seconds – it was darkness you could touch.

The dive is well documented – you get to the edge of the hole then do a seated entry into the darkness. It’s just a 1.5 m drop I’m told. Then once you’re under you can see the light from the other end and you swim to that and climb out – simple.

Those of us who are parents will know the sacrifices we make for our children, and unfortunately this meant I had to go first to make sure the water was clear of monsters for Tim to follow.

‘Just sit on the edge and drop in’ say the dive reports. Well it’s a piece of cake sitting at home reading about it with a cup of tea but I’ll tell you, it’s not so appealing when you’re sitting there on the edge of a hole in complete darkness about to drop into even more complete darkness full of black water teeming with monsters. But it had to be done so I squared my shoulders, bit on my reg, held my mask, tucked in my dangly bits, nipped my cheeks,  and in I went.

Nothing – no monsters, just water. Now it was Tim’s turn. He’d abandoned his twin set for a side mount but needed a free hand to hold it, so passed me his torch, but it slipped though my fingers and disappeared into the depths. Surprisingly the pool from hell is only 7m deep so it was easy to retrieve, but Tim tells me it was a long 30 seconds sitting up there in the dark on his own.

Then with a slide and a splash he was in, and we were bobbing around in the darkness of the cavern giggling to ourselves. We dropped down and sure enough there was the light only about 20m away. A few fin strokes and we were back in the real world in a shallow pool on the other side of the quarry wall. We dropped down again to have another look around the cavern. We followed a line around the bottom at between 7m and 3m. At one point a monster got hold of my fin but when I looked it was only a piece of tree hooked in the vent holes so that was OK. A few more minutes finning about then we headed back to the light and scrambled out of the pool and up onto dry land. Fantastic sunshine!

From there a huge archway leads back into the main quarry. We shuffled along the base of some old machinery then dropped back into the main lake for the surface swim over to the main entry point. The climbers had got 3m up the wall by now but we’d been somewhere else.

The adrenaline was pumping which is just as well because all the kit had to go up the path, up the ladder, through the cave, through the flooded tunnel etc etc. Another three return journeys and everything was back at the car, so we had another can of Fanta to celebrate. There was a bunch of drunken Scotsmen at the car park but they turned out to be divers so that was alright.

So, our impressions of Hodge Close? Definitely impressive, imposing, awesome. The whole entry and exit thing is exhausting but really interesting. The quarry lake itself is a teeny bit disappointing, although the tunnels might appeal to the hardened techie types. For me the highlight is the cavern. Not a fantastic dive, but if you want to go somewhere you’ve never been, both physically and mentally, this is it.

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