| Site Type: | Cave | | Site Status: | ASSI | | Council area: | Fermanagh & Omagh District Council | | Grid Reference: | H09214672 | | Bing maps: | 54.36934,-7.85843 | | Google maps: | 54.36934,-7.85843 | | Rocks |
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| Rock Age: | Quaternary, Carboniferous (Holocene, Visean) | | Rock Name: | Dartry Limestone Formation, Knockmore Limestone Member | | Rock Type: | Chert, Limestone | | Interest |
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| Minerals: | Calcite | | Other interest: | bedding, joints, breakdown, cave, column, helictite, pothole, sinkhole, speleothem, stalactite, stalagmite, straw |
| Summary of site: |
| Polltullybrack, with Pollnacrom, is the second alternative entrance to the Reyfad system, and the least attractive. Access is through a sink in a dry valley and, at over 300m, is the highest part of the system. The entrance is a tight squeeze but a small chamber leads to a wide passage, 7-8m high, followed by crawls over fallen boulders, silt banks and through a deep pool. Originally the way was blocked at this point by chert beds in the Dartry Limestone but they were demolished, giving access to 250m of an extremely awkward, low and wet passage that ends in a 3m long duck through a submerged section. A few metres beyond this, the passage enters the Knockmore Limestone Member of the Dartry and, as in Mad Pot and Pollnacrom, immediately develops a vertical aspect with a shaft of 53m plunging to a continuation along the same north westerly trend. This shaft is the longest known single drop in any Irish cave. A further 300m of passage joins the Reyfad system 200m north of the Main Chamber. Just before the junction, in the Grottoes, there are fine developments of cave decorations, including straw stalactites, helictites, curtains and columns supported on sands and muds which are starting to wash away, causing some subsidence. | | To understand Polltullybrack’s relationship with the entire system read the main Reyfad and Carrickbeg account in site record ‘Belmore, Ballintempo & Tullybrack Uplands; Reyfad-Carrickbeg’. |
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