Jamaican Caving Notes

Campbells Cave

May 21, 2005 - 12:00-13:00 EST

District: Campbells

Parish: Trelawny

WGS84 L/L: 18 23 13.0; 77 32 48.2

JAD69: 192115 E, 192625 N

JAD2001: 692226 E, 692914 N

Altitude: 315m WGS84

Accuracy: +/- 5m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical

Type: Shelter cave

Accessibility: Walk-in

Depth: 0m

Length: 15m

Explorers: CMAM - 1993

Survey: None

JU Ref: Text - pg 110; Map - none

Entrance size: 10m W x 3m H

Entrance aspect: 190 deg true

Vegetation in general locale: Farm

Vegetation at entrance: Farm

Rock type: White limestone

Bedding: Poor

Jointing: Moderate

Speleothems: Stals, flowstone

Palaeo resources: Undetermined

Archaeo resources: None seen

Hydrology: Dry

Siltation: N/A

Sink: N/A

Rising: N/A

Stream passage with surface activity: N/A

Stream passage without surface activity: N/A

Dark zone: 0%.

Climate: Warm, dry.

Bats: <500

Bat guano: Little

Guano mining: None

Guano condition: Dry/compact

Eleutherodactylus cundalli: None

Neoditomyia farri: None

Amblypygids: None

Periplaneta americana: None

Cave crickets: None

Sesarma: None

Other species: None. This site has no true dark-zone. It is an occasional roost for Artibeus.

Visitation: Occasional - local.

Speleothem damage: None

Graffiti: Some

Garbage: Some

Ownership: Private

Protection: None

Vulnerability: Low. This is a shelter cave that has no dark-zone. The bat-roost is minor and appears to be limited to occasional Artibeus.

This site is a shelter cave found in a hillside about 10 metres above the Clarks Town to Campbells road, 500 metres to the east of the fork to Kinloss. It was visited by the JCO on the last day of the PiP Project expeditions, and was the second to last cave done. It can be found easily by driving along the road until a GPS shows you to be within 40 metres of the listed position, and then looking up the hill to the north a short distance.

There is no dark zone here, and temperature and humidity are at outside ambient.

Darker parts of the shelter are an occasional roost for Artibeus bats. There is no accumulation of guano.

Formations are limited to stals.

The cave was investigated by the American Museum of Natural History in 1993, but we do not have access to their report. We noted breccia, but have no information on whether excavations were done in search of Quaternary fossils.

While we were at the car, below the cave, a gentleman came by who supplied some interesting information in the course of our conversation. Across the road to the south, in a valley that runs into the hills, is a track that leads to Barbecue Bottom. We'd known there was an old track that comes into BBQ Bottom from somewhere, but we didn't know where it started. The approximate location of the start of the track is at 18 23 02.0 N, 77 32 45.9 W. We did not actually go and look at it, but by using the topos afterwards, and his indication of the gap in the hills that we could see from Campbells Cave, I was able to derive the position given - it should be within 30-40 metres, east-west, of the track where it cuts into the southern hills.