What's left of the Caldew

Whenever we have a dry spell the Caldew river dries up between Haltcliffe Bridge and Waters Meeting, where Cald Beck flows into it, a distance of two miles or so.  When this happens the dry river-bed is punctuated with pools of stagnant water containing any fish that have not succeeded in escaping down-river.  When a dry spell becomes prolonged the fish can struggle to survive as the water become depleted of oxygen.  The photograph shows the river-bed near Millhouse.

The culprit is the Swilly Hole, a natural cave system in the limestone bed of the river at Haltcliffe Bridge, which is close to the villages of Hesket Newmarket and Millhouse.

Information about the Swilly Hole is not easy to come by, but there is a short description in Exploring the Limestone Landscapes of the Cumbrian Ring by Phillip Murphy, quoted below:



Not too far from Caldbeck, about 100 metres below Haltcliff Bridge, is the longest known cave system in the Cumbrian Ring. This Swilly Hole "has formed at the base of a limestone outcrop and is an 830m long flood-prone cave system where water sinking in the river bed can be followed a series of crawl-sized passages trending north-westwards."