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Ancrum Caves Survey
Date 14 February 2017 - 21 June 2019
Event ID 1100484
Category Project
Type Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1100484
A survey of the caves sited on the banks of the Ale Water close to the village of Ancrum was undertaken between March 2017 and November 2019. Maggie Dunn’s Cave (NT62SW 4), the caves on the right (south) bank of the Ale Water below the village of Ancrum (NT62SW 14) and the caves on the left (north) bank of the Ale Water opposite Ancrum Mill (NT62SW 3) were surveyed.
Access to the caves is difficult due to the steep nature of the river banks and the proximity to the river itself so a laser scanning exercise was carried out in the first instance to gather as much dimensional information from the opposite bank as possible. The caves opposite Ancrum Mill were scanned in March 2017, when the team were visited on site by the members of the Ancrum & District Heritage Society.
The caves themselves and the opposing banks have a substantial amount of vegetation cover. The second visit was postponed until January 2018 when the vegetation was at its lowest. On this occasion the caves on the right (south) bank were scanned.
After carrying out a risk assessment it was decided that a full rope access team would be required in order to gain safe access to the caves themselves. This was not possible within of the budget for the project, so no direct access was gained to the caves. All dimensions given in the descriptions have been calculated from the laser scan data.
