Updated 25th May 2003; 1st February 2006; 1st October, 8th November 2008; 27th May, 5th October 2011; 23rd April 2013

A tree-lined entrance shakehole has a short climb down into a passage that leads to a walking-sized streamway which has various inlets all of which dwindle, becoming too tight.

The entrance streamway enters the side of a large passage where daylight is seen upstream and it is possible to emerge in the entrance shakehole. The strong draught blows out from a downstream crawl on sandstone. At a climb down on a fault the passage widens and then enters a major boulder choke area which floods severely. A squeeze leads to a 4m climb down in large boulders. All the strong draughts enter from fissures on the left.

Just before the squeeze a route on the right was enlarged in 2008 between boulders. This emerges through a draughting squeeze to another bouldery area where it may be possible to progress through boulders in the roof.

In 2008, abundant cave life was noted throughout the cave, eg salamander, newt, caddis fly larvae, flat worm and 2 other species, as yet not named. A fine salamander was photographed at the end of March 2013.

Some suggestions about destinations for the water in the cave are shown here.

A diagram of the hydrology of the San Antonio - Hornedo - Cobadal area drawn after Easter 2011 can be found here.

Dowsing was carried out on the track that runs north of the entrance on 22/7/11. The single reactions could be taking water in either direction, away from or towards the Orchard Cave depression. See link below.

References: anon., 1986 (logbook); material in file; survey; anon., 2003b (Easter logbook); Corrin Juan, 2005; anon., 2008e (summer logbook); Corrin Juan, 2009; anon., 2011d (summer logbook); anon., 2013b (Easter logbook)
Entrance picture : 1  2  3
Underground picture(s): yes : Fire salamander, Easter 2013 : family trip, Easter 2017
Videos: by Juan Corrin
Walking from the Orchard Cave entrance to the newly excavated site, 1874 in wooded shakeholes (1.4Mb)
Small compilation of the following (1.1Mb)
Steve Martin moving upstream near the downstream end (0.9Mb)
Main passage, Steve and Terry moving downstream (1.6Mb)
Entrance route entering the main passage (1.0Mb)
Small oxbow (1.4Mb)
Moving upstream in the entrance passage (1.0Mb)
Moving downstream in the entrance passage (1.6Mb)
Penny Corrin emerging from the entrance (0.9Mb)
Terry Whitaker emerging from the entrance (1.1Mb)
Fire Salamander, Easter 2013 (YouTube)
Detailed Survey : scan of hand drawn survey
Line Survey :
On area survey : pdf file with Snottie, Torcida and Woodcutters' Caves
Dowsing reactions close to this cave (Article about the dowsing carried out in July 2011 can be found here.)
Survex file : yes (Coordinates altered to fit ETRS89 datum, April 2014.)