Qualla: Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: Introduction https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. From the air, the West Fermanagh Scarplands look like nothing in particular. Two hills, neither tall, rise above a patchwork of small fields and dry stone walls. But step onto Tullybrack or Belmore and you are walking on a roof. The ground beneath your boots is honeycombed with cave systems, three of them major, that the Northern Ireland Environment Agency has called nationally significant. Reyfad Pot, the deepest cave in Ireland, lies under Tullybrack. Polltullybrack contains a 53-metre vertical drop, the longest known pitch in any Irish cave. In Pollnacrom, in 1981, a diver pushing through an impassable sump never came back.

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Image: Fattonyni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: Three Systems, Two Hills https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. The caves of Tullybrack (386 metres) and Belmore (398 metres) sit just north of the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark and share its karst geology. Three major systems run beneath the two hills: the Reyfad-Glenkeel system, the Noon's Hole-Arch Cave system, and the Boho Caves. The r...

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Image: Fattonyni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-three-systems-two-hills.mp3 0:06 2 full Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: The Cave the Agency Called the Most Important https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. Reyfad Pot, beneath Tullybrack, has a name that comes from Irish: Pota Raith Fada. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency has noted it as the most important underground karst site in Northern Ireland, and the second longest cave in the region. Its passages are formed in Carn and...

Read more: Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills on Qualla

Image: Fattonyni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-the-cave-the-agency-called-the-most-important.mp3 0:06 3 full Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: The Longest Drop in Ireland https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. Polltullybrack offers what is probably the most dramatic moment in Irish caving. The entrance is tight, hidden in a dry valley, but it opens into a wider cave with deep pools and 250 metres of difficult passage. After ducking through a submerged section, cavers reach a 53-metre v...

Read more: Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills on Qualla

Image: Fattonyni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-the-longest-drop-in-ireland.mp3 0:06 4 full Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: The Diver Who Did Not Return https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pollnacrom has a small wet entrance leading to a 50-metre shaft, then a smaller 15-metre drop, then a hundred metres of stream passage trending northwest before turning south. The cave has been explored for six hundred metres before terminating at an impassable sump. In 1981, a d...

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Image: Fattonyni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-the-diver-who-did-not-return.mp3 0:06 5 full Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: The Lettered Cave https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fifty metres below the summit of Knockmore is a small cave with carved walls. The Lettered Cave is partly natural, partly human-made, and its art and writing span varying ages. William Wakeman investigated it between 1866 and 1870, and Thomas Plunkett did further work in 1878 and...

Read more: Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills on Qualla

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-the-lettered-cave.mp3 0:06 6 full Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: Tracing the Hidden Rivers https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cavers and hydrologists have spent decades pouring dye into stream sinks to trace where the water goes underground. Murphy's Hole, at the north end of a depression that also contains Seltanacool Sinks, takes large volumes of water in heavy rain. Dye traces have shown its water em...

Read more: Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills on Qualla

Image: Fattonyni | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-tracing-the-hidden-rivers.mp3 0:06 7 full Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills: The Surface Above https://qualla.com/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills/ Photo credit Fattonyni, CC BY-SA 3.0. Stand on Tullybrack or Belmore in late summer and you would not know any of this. The hills look like sheep pasture and bog, with limestone pavement showing through where the soil is thin. A few stone walls, a few scattered farms, the kind of view that fills a thousand postcards....

Read more: Caves of the Tullybrack and Belmore Hills on Qualla

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/d/m/caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-wp/gcdm-caves-of-the-tullybrack-and-belmore-hills-the-surface-above.mp3 0:06 8 full