Souterrain is a new word on me. Unsurprisingly it's from the French sous terrain, which simply means under ground.
I was told about this by a friend who found it when he was driving his tractor. He had a look down but didn't go in because he didn't have a torch. It's relatively well known locally among the kind of people who know these things and is marked on the OS map as a souterrain, so that's what I'll call it. If Wikipedia is to be believed it's a lot older than I thought, and certainly older than the access hatch.
This was my first attempt at using the DSLR in the dark, and it shows. After a few tries at light painting I decided to point the torch in the opposite direction and let the camera work with the residual light.
The entrance tunnel. This was very meandering.
A fully automatic flash shot
There were a couple of muddy humps like this that could only be crawled over.
Another corner
Not stalactites but grass roots, it's not far underground at all.
Nearly into the main chamber
There was a lot of carving on the walls, much of it with 19th and early 20th century dates. I don't know if they are genuine, I hope they are.There are still Hasties working on farms around here.
Half way to comedy gold.
The way out. I don't seem to have taken any pictures of the whole chamber.
The entrance/exit was the tightest squeeze. I left the camera bag there partly because I didn't want to carry it in and partly so that anybody looking for me would know I was still in there if the worst happened. Not that it was going to, but you never know.
I was told about this by a friend who found it when he was driving his tractor. He had a look down but didn't go in because he didn't have a torch. It's relatively well known locally among the kind of people who know these things and is marked on the OS map as a souterrain, so that's what I'll call it. If Wikipedia is to be believed it's a lot older than I thought, and certainly older than the access hatch.
This was my first attempt at using the DSLR in the dark, and it shows. After a few tries at light painting I decided to point the torch in the opposite direction and let the camera work with the residual light.
The entrance tunnel. This was very meandering.
A fully automatic flash shot
There were a couple of muddy humps like this that could only be crawled over.
Another corner
Not stalactites but grass roots, it's not far underground at all.
Nearly into the main chamber
There was a lot of carving on the walls, much of it with 19th and early 20th century dates. I don't know if they are genuine, I hope they are.There are still Hasties working on farms around here.
Half way to comedy gold.
The way out. I don't seem to have taken any pictures of the whole chamber.
The entrance/exit was the tightest squeeze. I left the camera bag there partly because I didn't want to carry it in and partly so that anybody looking for me would know I was still in there if the worst happened. Not that it was going to, but you never know.