Pol na Leprechauns

County Leitrim

From an unassuming surface rift to an incredible descend into Poll na Leprechauns

Some time ago, I photographed and wrote about Deep Pot in North County Leitrim, an impressively formed series of potholes that descend from a hidden and seemingly uninteresting rift in the blanket bog of Largy. Nearby Pol na Leprechauns also matches this description and, despite being at 85 meters deep, is a little less profound it is equally as impressive and possibly more pretty.

Top: A caver stands at the head of the second pitch
Bottom: A window before the final short pitch

It is, likewise, a much overlooked pothole and appears to have been last explored at least 20 years ago, or perhaps many more. Suffice to say, it has seen few visitors, being first descended in the 1950s and 1960s by British speleologists. (YRC Committee 1954, Batty, J.F. 1960). There was certainly a visit by Dónal Gilhoys’s Irish Speleological Association, possibly in the 1970s, as the group left the initials ‘ISA’ painted on a wall between the first and second pitch. Despite this they left no other record that I know of.

Large chamber and aven at Pol na Leprechauns

One of the first things that caught my attention about this cave is it’s somewhat mawkish name, thinking perhaps it was christened in the 1950s by its Yorkshire visitors. In fact, it appears to be an original name taken from the historic 6 inch map and supported by contemporary folklore of the area’s hill farmers who described how:

When a child dies its spirit may marry that of another dead child and the fruits of the union are the leprechauns, tiny fellows about eight inches high who live in the potholes on the moor. We were carefully instructed how to catch them… [but] being fairies, [they] leave no trace except the straw stalactites called in some places “fairy pipes”. (Stembridge, 1954).

The Beautiful Fourth Pitch at Pol na Leprechauns — The beautiful fourth pitch at Pol na Leprechauns

The cave itself starts with a beautiful 25m daylight pitch down the moss-covered walls of the narrow rift and is proceeded by four further pitches. The middle three are very fine shafts although the huge amount of loose chert scree makes access difficult and somewhat dangerous. Near the bottom, a purer limestone prevails and there are short developed passageways which become extremely muddy.