Montagu Passage West

Montagu Passage West, inwards

From the junction at the end of Bill Taylor's Passage, a walking passage goes round a couple of bends, before opening out into a chamber, with a rift in the floor. [A bold step across the rift regains the route from Bill Taylor's Passage to Fall Pot.]

Ascending the mud slope to the left, with cut steps, leads to a 1m iron ladder. The ladder provides a step up into a slot, which drops into a larger, mud-floored passage. The passage is clearly very large, but filled nearly to the roof with mud. A crawl passes a blind passage to the left, to a low crawl into a chamber. Ahead is a mix of walking, stooping and crawling, past stals.

After about eight minutes from the ladder a T-junction is reached with Portcullis Passage. [To the left, the sound of a streamway, Waterfall Passage, can be heard coming from a hole in the floor.] To the right is mostly crawling over mud, with some stooping, passing more stal. After about four minutes is a step across a rift. [Descending the rift leads to a route down to Waterfall Passage, slippery when wet.]

A few minutes ahead reaches a T-junction with Cross Passage, in an area with bedrock and cobbles.

• To the left leads to Waterfall Passage.
• To the right leads to Wilf Taylor's Passage.