Diccan Pot (plus a Long Churn Bimble & Gear Wash)

Tuesday April 7th 2026

Members present: Abbie Heathcote,  Will Barlow

The original plan for this day was a super chill trip to either Fountains or Whitby Abbey, giving a nice day of rest between Wales and a weekend away at the Bradford. Checking the weather on Monday caused me some disappointment as it looked like rain was forecast to begin on the Thursday we leave for the Bradford. I was secretly (not that secretly) really hoping to do Diccan that weekend. However the weather that day and the next day was looking pretty superb. A quick check of the CPC Horton cam showed the current water level being right at the bottom of the marker, not super dry (by Diccan standards) but probably dry enough given no rain was forecast between then and the next day. So I immediately messaged Abbie a message beginning with “Ok this is perhaps a silly idea”. She required no convincing to replace the super chill plan for a day of loud and wet potholing.

Rope packed the day before, 8:30am start, breakfast at Morrisons, usual stuff. The drive to the Dales was excellent, barely a cloud in the sky. The sun was shining, the air was warm, perfect! The walk to Diccan was warm, but short. 3 tacklesacks between the 2 of us, whistle codes agreed on. We managed to enter the surface cave without either of us slipping over (a first for me I think), as we approached the pitch head, the thundering got louder and louder. Until we were right there, and the noise was incredible. We spent a minute or so with lights off, allowing our eyes to adjust given that the spray in Diccan makes things (anchors in particular) quite hard to spot. I began rigging, and shortly began descending via the 2 immediate rebelays. The spray was incredible, the entirety of the first pitch you were being absolutely lashed by water. Any remaining Welsh mud stood no chance whatsoever. I remembered there being 3 deviations on the first pitch, despite the topo only showing two. I only found two on my descent, this did cause a minor annoying rub point but it was close to the bottom and I didn’t have any concerns about it. Only on my way up did I spot the deviation I missed (whoops).

The bottom of the first pitch was a violent place. The main waterfall thunders down right by the bottom of the rope. Whistles were very much required (we had to use them on every pitch throughout the trip). Vastly more exciting than last time I did Diccan with Erika and Viki, both of who managed to descend the entire pothole staying partially dry. That was not going to happen today. The bottom of that pitch would soak you though in seconds. At this point my glasses were steaming up so much that I slid them down onto my nose and just looked over them, not that that gave me much more visibility as the spray blocked my vision more than a few metres anyway. Descending the second small pitch gave a small amount of shelter from the water. The 3rd pitch was probably the most calm (relative to the rest of the pothole, it was still very exciting), the traverse bringing you away from the water, and the descent landing in probably the calmest spot in Diccan (we could even just about talk to each other!). I rigged that pitch head as a tri-hang, probably wasn’t strictly necessary but the anchors allowed a nice one so why not?

A small conversation followed to ensure that we were both having a good time (we most definitely were!), then I began the final pitch. This pitch is a thing of beauty, probably one of the most technical pitches in the Dales. An epic bum-shimmy traverse over the waterfall, followed by a descent via two free-hanging rebelays. Both of which required a really fun swing to reach. Two fun deviations followed by a final rebelay brings you to the floor, right by the sump. Even here we had no shelter from the water. We climbed up to see the bottom of Alum, spectacular daylight above us.

In the interest of not getting cold (we were both soaked though), we did not hang around and headed back down to Diccan and began our ascent. The way up was just as exciting as the descent, I chose to wear my pac-a-mac, mostly to make use of its hud. A relatively efficient exit brought us back to the surface in good time. We were met with bright shining sun, an excellent sight after spending the last couple of hours getting continuously and thoroughly soaked. Since it hadn’t taken us long, we decided to have a quick bimble though Long Churn for fun. Bags stashed in the middle entrance (except one for a handline), and off we went to Dr Bannisters. I pulled through the handline, as we decided to make this trip one way. The walk though was nice, Abbie realised that she’d never actually been though upper Long Churn. We exited via the middle entrance and headed back to the car for probably the most pleasant change I’ve had since last summer. It was so warm and sunny.

Diccan has long been my favourite natural cave, and today has further confirmed that for me. This was by far the most exciting I’ve ever seen it, and I loved every second. This is definitely up there with my most enjoyable caving trips ever.