I had been here a couple of times before and on one trip I took the waders along and started to have a look at the ground floor. as I was the only one with waders and the water was quite deep I only looked at the first few rooms.
Reefps and I have been talking about this for a while and we decided it was finally time to explore the whole of the flooded section. Reef had thigh waders which served him well and he got round more of the rooms than I thought he would but the water became too deep in places (which led to him calling out 'stop making waves!'). I took my cheapo chesties and managed to get a bit further
The ground floor at Cliffe Fort has been flooded for many years, it consists of the parade ground, magazines, barrack block and somewhere a well (but luckily we didnt find that!). The whole site is gradually being taken over by nature, we saw ducklings, water voles, Eels, seagulls and a Pheasant that could swim (who would have thought it?!)
Heading into the darkness
Apart from Algae on the surface the water here was quite clear and there was quite a lot of vegetation on the bottom
Near the entrance there was a lot of rubbish on the floor and the water soon became cloudy
The main corridors follow the contour of the fort so they curve round. as we moved away from the entrance the air became quite stale. The floor was littered with rubbish, old tyres, rolls of chicken wire (not good for waders), concrete blocks
The nearer the outer wall we got, the deeper the water got
A small magazine, the water really started to stink at this point and it was getting a bit thicker too
At one point it stunk of oil, it was floating on the water
A large magazine, there were lots of these
side passage to a magazine
After reaching a dead end and needing some fresh air we went back out and looked at the barrack block
The Easterly section, this was the deepest water. This picture shows the ramp down into it
Underneath the Brennan torpedo sighting structure
This was the deepest the water got, my tripod was at full height and there wasnt much of it left above water.
This room looked like a later addition and had a sloping ceiling. I later found out it was the servicing and loading room for the Torpedo launcher. The blocked up slit in the roof was for hoisting the torpedoes out and the sloping ceiling follows the same line as the launching slipway on the riverbank.
It was good to get some fresh air after breathing the stench! My waders also stunk despite hosing them down twice
Reefps and I have been talking about this for a while and we decided it was finally time to explore the whole of the flooded section. Reef had thigh waders which served him well and he got round more of the rooms than I thought he would but the water became too deep in places (which led to him calling out 'stop making waves!'). I took my cheapo chesties and managed to get a bit further
The ground floor at Cliffe Fort has been flooded for many years, it consists of the parade ground, magazines, barrack block and somewhere a well (but luckily we didnt find that!). The whole site is gradually being taken over by nature, we saw ducklings, water voles, Eels, seagulls and a Pheasant that could swim (who would have thought it?!)
Heading into the darkness
Apart from Algae on the surface the water here was quite clear and there was quite a lot of vegetation on the bottom
Near the entrance there was a lot of rubbish on the floor and the water soon became cloudy
The main corridors follow the contour of the fort so they curve round. as we moved away from the entrance the air became quite stale. The floor was littered with rubbish, old tyres, rolls of chicken wire (not good for waders), concrete blocks
The nearer the outer wall we got, the deeper the water got
A small magazine, the water really started to stink at this point and it was getting a bit thicker too
At one point it stunk of oil, it was floating on the water
A large magazine, there were lots of these
side passage to a magazine
After reaching a dead end and needing some fresh air we went back out and looked at the barrack block
The Easterly section, this was the deepest water. This picture shows the ramp down into it
Underneath the Brennan torpedo sighting structure
This was the deepest the water got, my tripod was at full height and there wasnt much of it left above water.
This room looked like a later addition and had a sloping ceiling. I later found out it was the servicing and loading room for the Torpedo launcher. The blocked up slit in the roof was for hoisting the torpedoes out and the sloping ceiling follows the same line as the launching slipway on the riverbank.
It was good to get some fresh air after breathing the stench! My waders also stunk despite hosing them down twice
