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February 2022
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Previous visits to Trollers Gill
noted the curious sight of a flowing stream disappearing underground half way
down the ravine, only to re-emerge in the empty stream bed to the south of the
gorge.
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Same view June 2021
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For much of year the stream bed in the gorge forms a rocky path used by
walkers trekking up the ravine (see pic below), but after winter rains the
underground section of the watercourse cannot flow all the water, and so the
stream runs in a torrent down the full length of the gorge.
The origins of this extra water can be traced to a spot about a mile to
the north of Trollers Gill where an underground stream emerges from the Stump
Cross Caverns cave system - but only after prolonged or heavy rains. The water
rises up from several crevices and openings in the rocks alongside the
normally dry stream bed, and then starts to flow down towards Trollers Gill.
This intermittent stream is called the Dry Gill, which at certain times
of the year carries the waters flooding out from the extensive cave system
underlying this area. Above ground, and further to the east, a dry stream
valley curves around the north-east side of High Crags Hill, suggesting that
the water may have also flowed along this route in the past. Following this dry
valley eventually leads to a sink hole where a fast flowing stream plunges
down into the same underground cave system. This stream is also called the Dry
Gill (or Mongo Gill), and so people in the past must have realised that the
two sections are linked by an subterranean passage. This upper section of the
Dry Gill stream flows out of a large boggy morass on the south side of High
Crag Hill. This is also the source of the river Washburn, with the river
heading south and the Dry Gill running north. So much water flows out of this
area that it suggests there are many buried springs within the morass, and the
water is actually emerging from within the hill.
