Swinsto Cave And Some Others
By Harold Brodrick.
Although recently the greater Ingleborough pot-holes have largely absorbed the attention of members of the Club, some exploration has also taken place on the eastern slopes of Gragareth since the bottom of Rowten Pot was reached in 1897.[1]
During Whitsuntide, 1908, a depth of about 230 ft. was reached in Bull Pot, and Jingling Pot (147 ft. deep) was fully explored.
Swinsto Cave:- About 700 yds. to the S.S.W. of Rowten Pot, (“Rowting Caves” on the 6 in. O.S.), is a stream, the upper end of which is marked on the map as “Swinsto Hole” and the lower as “Enters.” This lower end is called “Swinsto Hole” by Balderson,[2] and is described by him as a cave consisting of a low narrow tunnel about 100 ft. long, ending in a 30 ft. waterfall pitch.
In July, 1908, after one of the early attempts to explore Mere Gill, Rule, Hill and I walked over to Swinsto from the Hill Inn and examined the upper portion of the cave as far as the main pitch, but lack of time and bad weather conditions made any descent impossible on that occasion.
Several times subsequently I had, with other members of the Club, cast longing looks at the cave, but it was not until the 23rd June, 1911, during Coronation Week, that a party of sufficiently small men could be got together to undertake the exploration.
The carriage of ropes and ladders from the Hill Inn, by way of Twisleton, to Keld Head, was by no means pleasant work on a hot day, but it was nothing to the pull up of 400 ft. from Keld Head to the plateau above. On arriving at the cave, whilst the ladies of the party prepared lunch, the rest arranged the tackle, fastened the 35 ft. ladder to the end of an 85 ft. rope, and belayed the end of it to the pinnacle in the passage.
The stream which flows down the hill at this point sinks into its bed in the manner common on the limestone, but a few yards to the left there are two or three small holes, almost hidden by heather and grass, which lead by a drop of about 8 ft. into the underground course of the stream. The cave passage runs N.N.E., practically in a straight line, for a distance of 72 ft., and the first few yards are very low and narrow. The passage, moreover, is divided by a partition of limestone, (not stalactitic as stated by Balderston), so that, on the occasion of our first attempt, Hill was unable to get past it in any way. Beyond this obstruction the passage becomes slightly higher but continues so narrow that one must move sideways. The ropes and ladders here exhibited their usual perverse characteristics, but we finally managed to get the ladder into position down the pot-hole at the end of the passage, and found as usual that the only possible ladder-lead was directly in the waterfall. The only belay for the ladder-line was the limestone partition near the entrance. The vertical drop is only 20 ft., but the passage falls about 10 ft. in the last 15 feet of its length, so that it was necessary to play the life-line from above this point and from round a corner – a very awkward operation. Rule went down first and the waterfall put out his light at once, but the acetylene lamp above gave him a small amount of light. I followed, and we then decided that as two of the men above were absolute novices, it was not advisable for any one else to come down.
We found ourselves in a circular chamber, some 20 ft. in diameter, with two passages running out of it, one to the right, from which flows a small stream, and the other to the left.
The right hand passage we found was some 10-15 ft. high for the first 15 yds., after which a crawl through a short bedding cave led us into a beautiful circular chamber, at least 30 ft. in height, which looked promising, especially as there was a low arch at the far side. We quickly crawled through this arch and found ourselves in a second circular chamber of about the same dimension as the last. Beyond this was a fissure that came to an end after a few feet and rendered further exploration in that direction impossible. Williamson’s Irish terrier was with the party on the surface and became wild with excitement about the time we were in these two chambers. He had found two shallow shake holes about 50 yds. to the N.E. of the entrance and must have heard our voices down below for he started to dig furiously.
Having exhausted the possibilities of the cave in this direction we returned to the main chamber and went along the left hand passage, down which all the water of the cave flows away. This passage at the start was about 15 ft. high and 4 ft. wide, and we had an easy walk along it for some distance in a N.N.E. direction, the roof getting lower as we went along. After going about 50 yds. the stream ceased to flow and we found ourselves standing in still water, with a few inches of mud at the bottom and the roof about 5 ft. above our heads. From this point the water gradually grew deeper and the roof lower and walking soon became impossible, but, as we could not get any wetter, we worked our way forward and finally stopped at a distance of about 100 yds. from the main chamber. At this point the passage was 3 ft. high and the water 20 in. deep. We could still see the tunnel stretching straight ahead and the roof keeping at about the same level, but as we had then been some two hours underground, and had been wet through the whole time, the water having been in places above our waists, we hurried back to the main chamber and reached the open air as quickly as possible.
The climb up the ladder was complicated by the acetylene lamp being put out by the fallen water, the only lighted candle getting knocked over into the stream, and the matches becoming soaked with water.
The language of the man who had to wait on the ladder – a heavy stream of water pounding down on his chest, an extinguished acetylene lamp smelling of something other than roses under his nose and an entangled life line – whilst one of those at the top of the pitch went out of the cave and returned with another light, did not at all adequately express his feelings, but a change into dry clothes and a cup of tea soon put things right, and the stroll back to the Hill Inn completed a most enjoyable day’s sport.
Where we turned back the passage does not look very promising, but there is just a possibility that the water may be held up by a bank of gravel and not by a syphon.
The party consisted of H. Bassett, Brodrick, J. P. A. Dear, R. D. Farrow and A. Rule.
Close to Swinsto Cave are three minor pot-holes which have’ not been described before.
Double Three Hole. – At Whitsuntide, 1908, after the exploration of Jingling Pot, (“Jingling Caves” in the 6 in. O.S.), a shake hole, with a small hole at the bottom, was found some 100 yds. N.N.E. of Swinsto Cave. C.Hastings and Robinson enlarged it with the help of a heavy hammer until a descent could be made, when it was found to consist of two narrow fluted shafts, 33 ft. deep. For want of a better name it may be called, in telephone-girl fashion, Double Three Hole.
Thorney Pot. – One furlong to the S.W. of Swinsto Cave, the 6 in. O.S. marks a pot-hole surrounded by a wall which Mr. Balderston calls Thorney Pot. It has a diameter of 50 ft. and a depth of 40 ft., and with care can be climbed.
Sheepfold Pot. – The last of the small pot-holes in this district is marked ” Sheepfold” on the 6 in. O.S., and lies nearly half a mile from Keld Head, 400 ft. above it, and within a few yards of a sheepfold. It is 35 ft. deep, with a steep grass slope at the S.E., and a vertical rock face at the N.W. end. In the centre of this rock face is a fissure cave, 6 ft. 6 in. high and 2 ft. 6 in. wide, which extends away from the valley for a distance of about 24 ft., and is then blocked by fallen rocks. This passage might possibly be found to extend further at a higher level.
There are two noticeable facts in connection with this series of pot-holes – one, that the line of the main-stream passages of Swinsto Cave points directly towards Rowten Pot; the other, that the line of the fissure of the Sheepfold Pot-hole points to Keld Head, where all the waters on this side of Kingsdale come out into the open. I think it extremely likely that these two features are the cause of the spring at Keld Head, especially when it is remembered that the line of the fissures of Bull Pot, Jingling Pot and Rowten Pot is the same as that of Swinsto Cave. The Waters of Gragareth probably flow along the great fissure parallel with the valley, until they meet the Sheepfold fissure and flow down it to emerge at Keld Head.