Poulnacapple (Poll a'Chappaill - Cave of the horse) is believed to be resurgence of Boleyneendorrish or Ballylee river. This vertical sided pot is situated in obvious copse 80m south-east of Polldeelin (the main Coole River Rising). Site is double wire fenced and would need 3m rigid ladder for safe access. Provisionally I have installed system of ropes that temporarily do the job. River rises in northern corner of the pool and sinks again in obvious cave entrance at the southern end of the opening (see picture ).
Most of the credit for exploration should go to Steve Marsh, Pat Cronin and Martyn Farr I believe. Downstream, after 90m it connects Polldeelin 30m from the main rising through narrow horizontal slot at depth of 13m. Right now this short traverse is rated as very risky after some backfill and bulldozer job at the surface. Anyway it’s not really worth as it’s filled with domestic rubbish including fridge…;) Upstream story is much more interesting. Initially lads explored place for 80m where they faced boulder choke. The started working on a dig and finally they passed it. From there passage was heading SE on dept 7-9m for a good while but then it started dropping, turned back underneath itself a the depth of 30m and continued NE. Last exploration in 2004 left EOL somewhere 350-360m from the entrance.
I asked Pat Cronin for permission to continue from that point. For the first time I dived there on August long weekend.
