One feature of our plot, is the field behind us floods most winters.  Only minor flooding, little more than a big puddle, when the water table gets so high it cannot drain it forms a puddle.

 

What then happens is it starts to flow under our fence, across part of the garden into the burn.  To fix that, I installed a French Drain along that fence line with a pipe draining directly into the burn to stop that part of the garden getting waterlogged.

 

We have had a very wet spell for some time now, no torrential rain so no problems, but it has been persistently wet for a long time.

 

Yesterday SWMBO mentioned the outlet pipe from my French Drain was dry, so I went to have a look.

 

Round behind the shed, in the field margin I found this has appeared.

 

 

All the water that previously would have been emptying into my French Drain is now disappearing down this sink hole that has opened up.  It sounds like it is dropping some distance, you can hear it hitting the bottom.

 

At the moment I can't see where it is ending up. It has to be getting to the burn somehow so my plan later is to get a bottle of cheap food colouring and pour that down the hole to see if I can see where it comes out.

 

My guess is it's an old land drain put there previously to drain the field that is now blocked at it's source but the water has found another way into it.

I could do with a few of those, my chickens need wellies ?