Duanvale, Jamaica

JCO Reports

Jamaican Caves Organisation

The Caves of Duanvale, Trelawny

A report on the potential for tourism at several caves located in the Duanvale district of Trelawny.

Prepared by RS Stewart (Chair JCO)

Summary:

In June of 2006, JCO members RS Stewart, IC Conolley, J Pauel, and M Taylor visited several speleo sites in the Duanvale district at the request of the Duanvale Community Tourism Association to determine their potential and suitability for tourism. Three caves were visited (Kinloss Shelter, Puskurrunkus, Miller), plus one overhanging shelter (Jones Hole). Notes for all four sites will be found in this document, although one, Kinloss Shelter, is copied from our report to The Nature Conservancy on the caves component of the Parks in Peril Project. Conclusions and recommendations are supplied for the individual sites, with these based on our visits of June 11, 2006.

Of the four sites visited, we consider three to be suitable for tourist activities: These are Puskurrunkus, Kinloss Shelter, and Miller Cave. It is our opinion that the other, Jones Hole Shelter, is not of a great enough extent to satisfy most tourists. In the notes for the individual sites, found lower in this document, we will address this in greater detail.

Assessment methods:

The assessment process derived by the JCO and its collaborators uses certain indicators to indicate the overall health of the cave. These are described more fully in the report that was delivered to The Nature Conservancy - Jamaica for the caves component of the Parks in Peril Project, but essentially the method is this: certain species that are at the top of the food-chain are looked for, this indicating the relative abundance of those species upon which they feed; invasive species are looked for, with the American Cockroach the most important; available roosting space for bats, and percentage of this used, is noted. Along with these biological indicators, siltation of caves that take water is noted; soil-compaction is noted; damage to speleothems (formations) is noted; trash is noted; archaeological status is investigated. The conclusions and suggestions that will be found further on in this report are based upon this systematic assessment process. It was designed to be suitable for every cave visited and we are confident that it applies equally well to the caves of Duanvale.

Observations:

[The following information is derived from field datasheets that are not included with this report.]

Jones Hole Shelter June 11, 2006 - 14:00-14:30 EST Team: RS Stewart, IC Conolley, J Pauel, M Taylor
District: Duanvale	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84: 18 24 07.8 N, 77 35 21.4 W
JAD69: 187623 E, 194323 N	JAD2001: 687734 E, 694612 N
Altitude: 160m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Shelter	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: N/A	Length: 10m
Explorers: Unknown	Survey: None
Entrance size: 15m W x 10m H	Entrance aspect: 0 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm, bush.	Vegetation at entrance: Farm.
Rock type: White limestone	Bedding: Poor	Jointing: Poor
Speleothems: Stals	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: Reserved
Hydrology: Dry	Siltation: N/A
Sink: N/A	Rising: Active
Dark zone: 0%.	Climate: External ambient.
Bats: 0	Bat guano: N/A
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: None	Neoditomyia farri: None
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: Some
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: None
Other species: Sus domesticus (pigs). No dark zone – no trog inverts.
Visitation: Frequent	Speleothem damage: Some
Graffiti: Some	Garbage: Some
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Low

Jones Hole Shelter
June 11, 2006 - 14:00-14:30 EST
Notes: RS Stewart

Jones Hole Shelter, also known as “Between The Legs Cave”, is an overhanging shelter located low on the north side of the escarpment that defines the northern boundary of the Cockpit Country. It had been visited by two of the JCO crew in the past, Stewart and Taylor, in the mid-1990’s, although no records were kept of this. On June 11, 2006, at the request of the Duanvale Community Tourism Association, we returned to the site to assess the tourism potential.

This site is not a cave, as such, and consists primarily of a deep overhanging cut in the base of a cliff, with a crevice running east-west at the back, this formed by a large detached block that sits in front. Several prominent stalagmites are located close inside the dripline, with one of these suggesting associated archaeo potential. However, the modern usage of this site has probably greatly reduced the value in this regard. This is addressed below:

For at least a decade, this site has been used as a pigpen, with a low concrete block construction forming the outer wall of the pen, and the cliff at the back forming the inner wall. During our two visits, these separated by approximately ten years, there were pigs resident both times; we surmise that this is the usual state at this site. It should be noted that the pigs seem happy with this abode, as it quite effectively keeps them dry in rainy weather, but it has certainly done nothing for the aesthetics or physical condition. Accordingly, there is little to recommend this site in terms of tourist potential. (More on this will be found lower in the report.)

Kinloss Shelter May 21, 2005 - 13:45-14:45 EST Team: RS Stewart, IC Conolley.
District: Kinloss	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 24 03.0; 77 34 05.4
JAD69: 189853 E, 194169 N	JAD2001: 689964 E, 694458 N
Altitude: 200m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 5m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Shelter cave	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 0m	Length: 7m
Explorers: GSD, JCC	Survey: None
JU Ref: Text - pg 222; Map - none
Entrance size: 15m W x 4m H	Entrance aspect: 25 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm	Vegetation at entrance: Farm
Rock type: White limestone	Bedding: Poor	Jointing: Poor
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone	Palaeo resources: None seen
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: Hot, 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

Kinloss Shelter
May 21, 2005 - 13:45-14:45 EST
Notes: RS Stewart

This was the last cave visited as part of the Parks in Peril Project. The day had started in Troy, and then we had located Iron Maiden, at last, in Rock Spring, and then Campbells Cave after driving down the Barbecue Bottom road, and then finally, to finish things off, a simple little shelter cave not far from Windsor, in Kinloss.

This site is found about 25 metres up a hill on the south side of the road from Kinloss to Duanvale. It can be seen from the road if one looks carefully. If using a GPS, drive along the road, with the receiver navigating to the supplied WGS84 position, and when it shows you 30-40 metres away, with the distance increasing, stop the car and look up the hill to the south.

A scramble through brush up the hill will get you to a wide, overhanging entrance with stalactites. The cave is not large, and is all in the twilight zone.

Artibeus are using the darker recesses occasionally, but there are no trogs. The interior of the cave is at outside ambient temperature and humidity.

Some garbage is lying around, and we can speculate that it is an occasional hangout for little bashments by local youths.

The site is not recorded as having had palaeo investigations, but it would seem to offer potential for this. It has been high and dry for a very long time, and excavations might prove rewarding with regard to Quaternary vertebrates.

Puskurrunkus Cave (Possible JU listing as Southfield Cave) June 11, 2006 - 15:00-15:30 EST Team: RS Stewart, IC Conolley, J Pauel, M Taylor
District: Duanvale	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 24 27.4 N; 77 35 31.1 W
JAD69: 187340 E, 194927 N	JAD2001: 687451 E, 695216 N
Altitude: 195m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Complex shelter cave	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: N/A	Length: 12m
Explorers: Unknown	Survey: None
Entrance size: 5m W x 3m H	Entrance aspect: 180 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm	Vegetation at entrance: Farm
Rock type: White limestone	Bedding: Poor	Jointing: Poor
Speleothems: Stals	Palaeo resources: None seen
Archaeo resources: Reserved
Hydrology: Dry	Siltation: N/A
Dark zone: 0%.	Climate: Warm, dry.
Bats: <50	Bat guano: Little
Guano mining: Some	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 jamaicensis (large fruit-bats).
Visitation: Frequent - local.	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: Some	Garbage: None
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Low

Puskurrunkus Cave
June 11, 2006 - 15:00-15:30 EST
Notes: RS Stewart

Puskurrunkus is a small cave formed in a hill to the north of the Duanvale-Kinloss road. The hike required to reach it from the closest minor road is only about 30 metres, on slightly upward-sloping ground. There is no true dark-zone in the cave, so we have assigned the type as “complex shelter”, the “complex” noting that there is a light-hole opening on the north side of the cave, along with the main entrance on the south.

Biological activity is restricted to occasional use by low numbers of the common fruit-bat, A. jamaicensis. Surprisingly, we did not observe any of the cave-breeding frogs, E. cundalli, although it would seem to be suitable habitat for them. We suspect that they do use the cave at times, but happened to be absent during our visit.

There is graffiti on the walls of the cave, but we saw no damage to formations.

As with several other of the other sites in the district, there appears to be archaeo potential (a possible glyph was observed).

The lack of a true dark-zone results in this cave not being biologically vulnerable to occasional visitation; there are no trog species; the bat numbers are lower than what some people have in their attics, and made up of the species that is the least threatened in Jamaica.

Southfield Cave is listed in Alan Fincham’s work, Jamaica Underground, to be in the general area, but there is no specific information given. We quote: “Duanvale area. Type: Unknown: (page 337, second edition).

Miller Cave June 11, 2006 - 15:45-16:15 EST Team: RS Stewart, IC Conolley, J Pauel, M Taylor
District: Duanvale	Parish: Trelawny
WGS84 L/L: 18 24 23.4; 77 36 23.3
JAD69: 185808 E, 194809 N	JAD2001: 685919 E, 695098 N
Altitude: 190m WGS84	Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical
Type: Chamber cave	Accessibility: Walk-in
Depth: 3m	Length: 20m
Explorers: Unknown	Survey: None
Entrance size: 3m W x 2m H	Entrance aspect: 180 deg true
Vegetation in general locale: Farm	Vegetation at entrance: Scrub
Rock type: White limestone	Bedding: Poor	Jointing: Poor
Speleothems: Stals, flowstone	Palaeo resources: None
Archaeo resources: None seen
Hydrology: Minor rainy-season surface run-off	Siltation: N/A
Dark zone: 50%.	Climate: Warm, semi-humid.
Bats: <500	Bat guano: Some
Guano mining: Some	Guano condition: Dry/compact
Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some	Neoditomyia farri: None
Amblypygids: None	Periplaneta americana: Some
Cave crickets: None	Sesarma: None
Other species: Rats. Minor roost for Artibeus jamaicensis (large fruit-bats).
Visitation: Occasional - local.	Speleothem damage: None
Graffiti: Some	Garbage: Some
Ownership: Private	Protection: None
Vulnerability: Low

Miller Cave
June 11, 2006 - 15:45-16:15 EST
Notes: RS Stewart

This was the last of the sites visited in aid of the Duanvale Community Tourism Association, and the only one that is a true cave. Although it is not large, it is made up of several chambers and has an area of dark-zone. The entrance is located some tens of metres from the base of a cell-phone tower, and easily accessed (a hike of perhaps 15 metres from where you can park).

The entrance is at the bottom of a small collapse pit which we are pleased to note was not filled-in during construction of the cell-tower. A small amount of water flows into the entrance during heavy rains, but quickly soaks away into the soil on the floor of the cave (there was no evidence of past pooling).

A small bat-roost is extant in the cave, which appears to consist entirely of the common fruit-bat, A. jamaicensis. American roaches, P. americana, are present as an invasive species, and a rat’s nest was observed. No trog macroinvertebrates were seen. The cave frog, E. cundalli, is using the area just inside the entrance.

Graffiti is present in the cave but consists mostly of charcoal, so removal would be possible. Garbage is present, but a clean-up of this would not take very long (an hour or two).

Conclusions:

Following these introductory remarks, we have ranked the visited sites in ascending order of importance, as regarded in a tourism context. It must be noted that because all of the sites can be visited safely (i.e. there are no vertical pitches that require rope-work, and there is no flood-risk), our criteria are purely subjective, as by necessity it must involve putting ourselves in the place of future paying guests. We have attempted to do this by using knowledge gleaned from contacts via email that we have received over the years from non-cavers whom either have an interest in visiting caves, or are simply interested in our own accounts while having no desire to do it themselves. These criteria follow below:

First and foremost in what seems to impress novice cavers is the darkness found underground. Most residents of developed countries now live in urban settings where truly pitch-black conditions are seldom experienced (even in their bedrooms at night, some light penetrates the curtains from the streetlights outside). Generally, those tourists who leave the resorts to participate in an activity such as caving, hiking, or climbing are after “soft-adventure”. By this we mean that they do not want it to be too adventurous (i.e. risky), but rather feel that it is while they remain confident that they will not come to mishap during the course of it. The darkness experienced in a cave is an important part of this for them, and serves to heighten their sense of daring (and it’s an important part of the story that they will tell their friends and family afterwards). If lighting is supplied using only flashlights or headlamps, and these are all turned off at once for several minutes in the deepest part of the cave (once everyone has a safe seat), they will get the full effect of being in total darkness. A shelter cave, with light shining in from the outside, cannot give them this necessary feeling of being in a new environment, separate and disassociated from their normal experience, and even if they enjoyed all of the other aspects of the visit, they will be left with a vague feeling of disappointment. This factor applies to all but one of the caves visited, that being Miller Cave.

Secondly: One of the main appeals to those intending to visit a cave for the first time is the physical beauty of the formations (stalactites, stalagmites, etc). They will all have seen photographs of caves, and will hope to see it personally. All four of the sites meet this criterion, to varying degrees.

Thirdly: Despite the desire for something that resembles an adventure, many tourists would prefer to do it in a way that does not cause them to be bitten by insects, scratched by macca, or caused to feel uncomfortable in any way. Because of this, the approach to the cave is very important. For all of the sites visited, this is not a concern. Access is essentially roadside for all four, although Kinloss Shelter will need some work done on the steep track to it.

The other factors that would apply to carrying out tourist activities at the sites include the hospitality and friendliness shown by their hosts, and visits that run on schedule, but we regard this as being outside the purview of this report (plus, we are quite sure that there will be no problem with friendliness on the part of the good people of Duanvale).

We will now address the four sites using the criteria given above:

Jones Hole Shelter

Although there are some attractive formations found here, it is not truly a cave, but rather an overhanging shelter with a crevice behind formed by a large block that separated many years ago. In addition to this problem with lack of dark-zone, there is much soot on the formations, and there is a concrete block wall that forms a pigpen in a section of it (complete with pigs). It is difficult for us to imagine that tourists would be satisfied by a visit to this site.

Puskurrunkus Shelter

This site also suffers from lack of size and dark-zone. Although it is a true shelter cave, unlike Jones Hole Shelter (and certainly more attractive), it is our opinion that most tourists would not be satisfied by a visit to this site, unless it were as part of a package that included at least one of the two sites that follow.

Kinloss Shelter

This is also a shelter with no true dark-zone, but it does have the advantage of being high on the side of a hill with a good view to the north. We believe that this factor, the view, along with the formations in the cave, would leave most visitors to the site feeling satisfied, especially if it is included as part of a package with Miller Cave, which follows.

Miller Cave

This is the only site of the four that is a true cave. It is not of a great size, but it is made up of several small chambers, and does have a dark-zone. We consider this to be the site with the best tourism potential visited this day, although it will need some work before this happens (addressed in recommendations, found below).

Recommendations:

Of the four sites visited, three have potential for tourism. These are Puskurrunkus, Kinloss, and Miller. Jones Hole Shelter does not. However, we do not believe that any one of the three sites will supply a satisfying experience by themselves; they must be as part of a package that consists of at least two, and preferably three, with this accompanied by historical and cultural information on the sites supplied by the tour guides (we assume that there is a rich collection of local stories associated with these caves). A few other simple additions might be to supply brochures on the history of Duanvale, have some freshly-cut sugar cane and jelly coconuts available for those who would like to try them, and generally try to give the guests a feel for the real Jamaica, rather than the resort Jamaica.

Specific recommendations follow for the individual sites:

Jones Hole Shelter This site in its current state cannot be considered for tourism. It would be difficult and costly to restore it to its original condition, and it is not large enough to be worth this effort. This site should not be considered as part of tourist activities in Duanvale.

Puskurrunkus Shelter This site is fine as it is, and needs no work to make it suitable for visitors. It should be considered for inclusion as part of a package with the following two sites.

Kinloss Shelter This site needs the track to it improved, and a general clean up of garbage and trash. Careful pruning of brush that interferes with the view from the cave entrance should be considered.

Miller Cave This is the most valuable of the sites, but it is in need of a serious clean up before tourists should be brought to it. The graffiti (writing on the walls), and soot from bottle-torches should be removed using soft brushes and water (the soot might require the use of a mild soap). All trash should be removed. A policy for visitation to the cave should be instituted that includes the following:

Flashlights only, and no bottle-torches (we must stress that electric lighting should be with batteries, not from a power line brought in from the outside – this would cause both the bats and the frogs using the cave to be driven out);

Prohibiting the placing of any markings or drawings on the walls of the cave; Prohibiting damage to any of the rock formations found in the cave;

Non-interference with bats that may seasonally occupy the cave (i.e. don’t try to chase them out or unduly disturb them);

Non-interference with spiders and other bugs that may be found in the cave.

Acknowledgments:

The JCO would like to thank the Duanvale Community Tourism Association for the opportunity to be a part of this project, and also for the warmth and hospitality shown to us during our visit. We wish them all success with their endeavour, and ask that they keep us apprised as it goes forward. RS Stewart, Chair – JCO, Sept 13, 2006

Glossary of terms:

Dark-zone – The area inside a cave that receives no light at any time during the day.

Flowstone – Calcite formations that are created by calcium-bearing flows of water from cracks in the walls of a cave.

Invasive – Generally, this refers to species that are non-native, but the term is more often used when the species causes a severe disruption to the original ecosystem.

Invertebrates – Animals without backbones. Includes insects, spiders, and crabs.

Speleothems – Formations, including stalagmites, stalactites, helictites, and flowstone.

Stals – Caver’s short-form for stalactites and stalagmites.

Stalactites – Calcite formations that hang from the ceiling. Created by water percolating from above.

Stalagmites – Formations that grow from the floor upwards, usually under stalactites. Stalactites and stalagmites can grow together to form a column.

Stygobite - Aquatic species that are restricted to, and only found in caves. E.g. Sesarma verleyi (Jamaican cave crab).

Terrestrial – Species that live on dry land.

Trog/s – Short-form for troglobites and troglophiles.

Troglobite – Terrestrial species that are restricted to, and only found in caves. E.g. Troglopedetes jamaicanus (cave-adapted Springtail).

Troglophile – Terrestrial or aquatic species that can successfully inhabit caves but are not restricted to them. E.g. Sesarma fossarum (Jamaican river crab).

Area Map