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IT’S EMERGED A father and son trapped overnight in a cave in Co Clare hadn’t left details of their planned trip with any friends or family members.
Patrick Troy and his son Finn, who’s aged in his 20s, were stuck for over 28 hours in the Pollnagollum cave network in north Clare.
The pair, from Dublin, lost their way on Saturday as they attempted to find their way back to the surface but were unable to locate the right exit, and decided to sit and wait for rescuers.
Rescue warden with the Irish Cave Rescue Organisation Conor McGrath said cavers in the area were provided with Patrick’s car reg, and checked out known Clare caving locations yesterday afternoon.
They found the car in around 30 minutes “then we knew we had an active incident on our hands”.
“They still had light,” McGrath told Morning Ireland.
“Obviously when they lost their way they made a few attempts to locate an exit.
“At that stage they made a smart decision to sit tight and just wait for people to try and find them.”
Members of the ICRO who mounted the rescue managed to reach the Troys’ location within 90 minutes, and provided the pair with food and warm drinks.
Both were in “surprisingly good spirits”, McGrath said.
“Unfortunately they hadn’t left any information about the cave they were in, the route they were taking or expected times of entry and exit.”
Patrick is a former member of the ICRO himself. Speaking to the Irish Times, he admitted he had broken “all the cardinal rules” – and stressed that anyone planning a caving trip should leave their plans with someone.
Pollnagollum is the most extensive cave system in Ireland.
McGrath said route-finding was “very complicated” in the network and that while it was easy to find the way down, following the flowing water – getting back up was much more difficult.
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If there isnt street lights, the dubs are lost!.
“the pair were located after rescuers heard their ‘screeching contest’ through the cave”
So thats four tickets to Paraguay
Pollnagollum, great name, wonder what it means.
The hole of Colum
Hole of the pigeons
*Colm
*Colm
Literally The Hole of Colm
*Shaft of Echos.
Just reading this is terrifying , thank heaven they were found
The hole of gollum. With precious of course.
I think I can see where this is going…
Tolkien’s work was inspired by the Burren.
“The hole of the demon” is correct.
(The caver might have been more careful if he knew that).
The Father was a former member of the ICRO!! You would think he would have known better than to go caving without letting anyone know A) What route he had planned and B) What estimated time they would finish at and C) Mark his route with a piece of chalk.
he admitted that as a former member he broke all the cardinal rules !
More eejits thinking they know better. Risking the lives of others. Not only the ICRO but also members of the Doolin Coast Guard who have had a number of incidents to deal with over the past few weeks.
poulnagollum means the cave or hole of the doves, colm being the Irish word for dove
Colm comes the Latin word for Dove… “columba”.
Gollum is an old Irish word for demon.
So it’s Gollum’s hole then?
P.S.
You get the same name for caves right around the world in every language.
Caves are portals to the frightening underworld…where the dead and demons lurk.
In irish, plural genitive nouns beginning with b, c, d, f, g, p, and t get “eclipsed” after the article – meaning that another letter gets put in front of the b, c, d, f, g, p, or t.
c gets eclipsed by g in this case.
so you get:
capall (horse) -> na gcapall
colm (dove) -> na gcolm
As many have pointed out above, Poulnagollum is the anglicised version of “Poll na gcolm” – the hole of the doves.
I’ve never heard of “gollum” being old irish for anything, let alone a demon. If you have a source for that, it would be interesting to see it.
If you follow the water to go down can’t you follow the same water backward to get out? Obviously not that simple.
How do you know you’re following the same water back up, when all the water from everywhere is going down?
As far as i know, these caves are not mapped entirely and accurately yet so people need to be very careful.
Outside of the tourist attractions it’s one of Ireland’s best known caves with near a century of exploration. Pretty detailed surveys available compared to other caves in Ireland.
Pretty detailed =not mapped entirely & accurately. Currently the maps are being updated and added as per explorers information. Around 17 Kilometers of caves with lots of tunnels.
It is also reported that the man also said that he has been doing this for 30 years! He was also in that specific cave 20 years previously but things had changed. In other words, he thought he knew it all!
I’ve been in it… As surveys go it’s pretty good. Most of it mapped to BCRA grade 5. Which is pretty good as cave surveys go short of using really technical equip. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_survey#BCRA_grading_system)
Why are all the rocks different sizes?
Well, you know, rocks are generally different sizes
How did everyone breath?
The cave rescued the father and son?
Yep I think it should be cave-rescue as in a double adjective.
Luckily they didn’t bump into a Balrog, – bad news, those guys.
John Shaft. Great name especially in a caving story!
ICRO handled it like a BOSS, well done to everyone involved.
yuk I’m getting clostraphobic (sp?) just reading this, glad their ok
Happened to myself and a buddy of mine many years ago in the same cave. Once you get past the “hall of fame” it can get very confusing. We spent 14 hours trying to find our way out. When we did get out we didn’t realise it at first as it was 4am in the morning. Eventually we spotted a star. Very relieved. I’ve been down again many times but I know now not to make the same mistakes. Easily done though so I completely sympathise with the two lads.
I don’t belieeeve it!
Why is there not some type of markings to help get you to exit
Because it’s a 16km long cave system with 8 different enterances, not a supermarket carpark.
I have experienced some supermarket car parks that were like labyrinths!
I have encountered some department store underwear sections that have equally tricky to get out of.
I have potholed this cave with a map of it and we thought we were lost at one point. The problem is that the exit is like a S bend pipe. You would only see the exit if you had day light.
Well holy God
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