109 Torca de Cellaron (Cillarón)
Llueva VN55239909 Alt. 282m  Length 620m Depth 107m

Updated 19th February 1999; 8th November 2003; 5th November 2005

The track to the shaft was being improved with European money in the autumn of 2005. The sign at the road junction called the area Cillarón. This

The entrance is in a walled, wooded depression. This is often difficult to locate, especially when overgrowing vegetation prevents boulders from rumbling down the entrance pitch.

A fine shaft of 47m lands on a festering heap of remains. To the east, the walking sized passage ends at a calcite choke after 100m. About 50m from the end on the right there are some phreatic(?) rifts which could be easily climbed.

In the opposite direction, a gradually enlarging passage leads to a veranda looking down into a large chamber. just back from here on the right, a narrow, calcite-floored rift eventually closes down. On the left, before the veranda, a large passage ascends over boulders to a steep calcite slope. At the top of this, a well decorated section has a 30m choked pitch through a window on the left hand wall and a 15m choked pitch at its end. Four pitches in all? Proper description, Grovel!!?

The easiest way down into the blackness at the veranda is by stooping under the left hand wall to a boulder slope down to the right. The way on gradually enlarges until the passage attains a width of 50m. At this point a stream, cut into the sediment, sinks at a 15m choked shaft under the left hand wall. The main passage ascends gently to a calcite choke after a further 180m. There may be a high level passage here; climbing to it was started in 1993, and continued the following year, nearly reaching the top of a "very muddy bolt climb". Another bolt route is visible in the middle of the main chamber where a roof tube comes in.

Water draining from the lower reaches of this cave must drop into the unexplored streamway on the far side of the downstream sump in Cueva Llueva (114).

References: anon., 1978 (logbook); Corrin J et al, 1978 (survey); anon., 1980a (logbook); Corrin J et al, 1981b (survey and photo); Manchester University Speleological Society, 1982 (survey); Corrin J, 1980; Mills L D J, 1981; Mills L D J and Waltham A C, 1981 (survey); Corrin J S and Smith P, 1981; anon., 1986 (logbook); material in file; anon., 1993b (logbook); anon., 1994b (logbook); García José León, 1997 (survey); Corrin Juan, 1997c; anon., 2005c (autumn logbook)
Entrance picture :
Underground picture(s):
Scanned slides by Frank Addis taken in 1980. Click to enlarge.
A 1: Entrance pitch. 2: Looking back across the main chamber. 3: Dripstone floor in main chamber.
B1, B2: Upper stal chamber.

	1	2	3
A
B

Detailed Survey : from 1978: low res  high res
Line Survey :
On area survey :
Survex file :