Cave Exploration

I. – New Discoveries

Leck Fell, Lost John’s Cave. – 6th August, 1928. Exploration completed by parties led by Messrs. P.F. and Innes Foley.

An extensive and remarkably intricate addition to this cavern was entered by the Messrs. Foley on 21st June, 1926, and they have since led several expeditions to it, doing very fine work. Six pitches of varying depths, all nominally dry, led in the end to the stream. A very fine upward climb beyond the third pitch gave them a view of the Dome Chamber. On another branch three other pitches led to another view point of the same. A Y.R.C. expedition at Whitsun, 1928, entered the Dome and finished that branch by reaching the stream where it could be followed neither up nor down. In the longer branch they carried on two more stages with the water, and reported a ninth pitch. In August the original explorers found this to be the last.

An article and plan are promised for the next Journal.

Giggleswick Scar Caves. – Brodrick reports that about 1910 he and Hill found or uncovered a cave which they thought was Staircase Cave, N.W. of the Schoolboys’ Tower (and therefore near Schoolboys’ Cave). He went down on a 70 ft. rope, untied and climbed down the last bit, forcing a way out at the foot of the Scar. A recent search has failed to recover this. It is certainly not Staircase Cave, which is quite open.

Barbon Fell, Hidden Pot. – 19th June, 1927. Woodman and Roberts. The existence of a forty foot pot-hole on the opposite side of the road to Bull Pot and concealed by brushwood piled into the sink-hole of a tiny stream was not noticed till early in 1926, and was unknown even to the farmer.

Much dangerous débris and loose rock had to be removed before the final twenty feet of ladder could be descended. Several promising crawls, one upward nearly to the surface, failed to lead into Bull Pot, as hoped.

Wharfedale, Foss Gill Pot. – First descent, by the late Mr. Gordon Maufe, before the War. On the limestone platform opposite Starbotton, above Foss Gill beyond the second wall. Some thirty feet down at the S. end of an obvious rift is the entrance to a pot-hole. The ladder descent is just 40 feet.

Frankland was lowered into it in July, 1927, and the exploration was completed in 1928. The rift ran S. no great distance before closing in. Mr. Maufe also reported a weird oblique crawl cave, very wet, of considerable length, near the Foss. An endeavour has been made to force the Foss Rising, but the most promising avenue was found to be choked with boulders.

Brough,Swindale Pots. – Beetham has pointed out a group by the side of the high road to Grains o’ th’ Beck, three miles N. of Brough. A week-end with him in July accounted for them. The floor of the upper hole is easily reached, and there are a couple of short ladder climbs in its recesses.

The lower hole has a fair chamber, and requires twenty feet of ladder.

II. – Other Expeditions

Ingleborough, Mere Gill Hole. – Third descent, Gritstone Club, July 16th-17th, 1928. “Mere Gill at last. Went in eight strong at 9 p.m. Saturday, and came out at 8.30 a.m. Sunday. Much water on pitches. Never wish to see the place again, but may think I enjoyed it, after I have got over the present fatigue.” – (From a postcard to the Editor).

Ingleborough, Jockey Pot. – September 11th, 1927. (F. Booth, H. Booth, E.E. Roberts). This party report a glorious descent well worth doing. The side tunnel gives a clean rock entrance with excellent holds without the mess and dirt of the surface lead and in which a pulley can easily be rigged. They confirm the measurements of the first party, 220 ft. from surface, which again confirm Balderston. From the tunnel end a rounded vertical groove of 32 ft. led to a little niche whence a single descent of 168 ft., the first half in a slight grooving, led to the floor, a total of 200 ft. of ladder.

The loads were rather heavy for a party of three from Clapdale. Four would have made it a picnic.

Chapel-le-Dale, Weathercote Cave. – For well over one hundred years it has been known that passages could be reached both above and below the famous fall, but the printed statements are very vague. For many years the lower passage has been choked with a mass of branches. A couple of wet uncomfortable crawls have yielded the following:- Where the second waterfall appears in bad weather, you get up into the bedding plane from which it pours, and with much pain attain the side of the tunnel conspicuous from below, well back from the waterfall. On your left the stream leaves the bedding plane by a ten foot fall. Progress upstream without any head room or hope of improvement cannot be made for more than a few yards. It is easy to get down into the tunnel. The situation is grand, and it appears possible to climb out on the left wall, good belays.

In the dark corner at the foot of the fall, you can now get through the entanglement of timber and descend a hole into a passage, hopelessly blocked by the stuff down to the left, but admitting of some short crawls to the right in the rock behind the fall, but there is no passage upwards.

Cam Fell, Foxholes. – The position of these two beautiful little pot-holes in highly fossiliferous rock, alluded to by Cuttriss, Notes on Caves, has been uncertain. They are close to and west of the wall at the foot of the slight descent south from Round Hill (six inch map). Coming from Ling Gill Bridge, follow the direction of the tributary above it to the east for three-quarters of a mile till a cross wall is reached; then follow wall half-mile north. The pot-hole next the wall has an interesting little descent in the dark and is more complicated than the other, 100 yards away.

Kingsdale, Bull Pot. – Third descent, 16th July, 1927. Brown, Hilton, F. and H. Booth, Roberts, Whitaker. A delightful night expedition under dry conditions. The third and fourth pitches were found to be only about 50 ft. each. The most direct way on the 3rd pitch is probably through a hole in the floor, by which in fact the tackle was sent back. Below this point the direction of the descent is 245° magnetic, the reverse of the upper part. A narrow rift was found on the left wall of the lowest passage and descended a certain distance. With the aid of a ladder, and much trouble, the next party should break a little new ground.

Leck Fell, Short Drop Cave. – Cuttriss’s short note, printed in Vol. V., p. 63, gives no indication of the length and grandeur and interest of the passage through to Gavel Pot. Two very surprised adventurers with a single electric lamp found themselves hundreds of yards beyond the difficult crawl without reaching the waterfall by the Stalactite Chamber. In July last the journey was made in haste on a stormy day and the uprights of the old ladder at the waterfall found still in position. The flight back to daylight took half an hour. The point at which one finds one is leaving the water for a dry branch is the beginning of the troublesome crawl, in a tunnel at your feet.

Barbon Fell, Bull Pot. – Evans reports a 5½ hours exploration in July, 1927, with discovery of several new passages. No details as to where. The 1926 cavern is very large and in one corner must be nearly 100 ft. high.

Nidderdale, Goyden Pot. – The Labyrinth does not seem to have been entered since the Club’s mass visit in 1921, but the Gritstone Club has recorded a visit to the cave which almost finished in disaster, the party fighting its way out against a flood.

A party from the Wath meet, 1928, went in 50 yards to the Window and in another fifteen to where in 1921 the upper passage closed in three plugged holes. The eastern is now open, and a troublesome crawl over mud, squared timbers, and branches tends up northerly and finishes in clean rock at a little 14 ft. pot-hole, water floored.

Another visit was paid in May to try and clear up the puzzling points in an article by Mr. George Gaskell, Chambers’ Journal, Vol.V., May, 1888. He claims the discovery of a passage reached by a ledge and scramble of twelve feet, leading past the foot of a circular shaft to a deep pool under a great vaulted dome. The entrance was somewhere near the head of a 30 ft. waterfall into the River Chamber. None of these were found.

Entering the River Chamber, the drier and more interesting route is to keep right; the existence of the bridge is much more obvious just before reaching the torrent. Above the long wide bridge the cave is very imposing but there are no passages off it, as stated Y.R.C.J., Vol. V., p. 66. It is now possible to understand the use of a ladder and ropes by Lowe and by Gaskell.

The hardened practitioners of to-day have no hope of keeping either dry or clean, but the early explorers naturally avoided the water, went on to the Bridge, as Lowe says, and laddered from the far side, quite a good route.

Far downstream the end of the cave, in 1921 an entanglement of branches, is now quite clear and the Nidd disappears into a floor of gravel joining a sloping roof.

Caves of Southern France.-The superior claims of mountaineering have long prevented any Ramblers from making a tour of the many famous French caves. Henry Humphreys and B. Holden, Jr., in June, 1928, at last removed this reproach.

Les Eyzies (Dordogne), two days. Roc de Tayac, extensive ancient dwelling. Grotte de Grande Roc, small cave, rich in fantastic deposit, the wind theory will not suffice. Miremont Cave, 4 kms. of passages, three hours at good speed, La Grotte de Carpe Diem, Grotte de Font de Gaume, small but very interesting, paintings of bison, reindeer, mammoth, etc. Grotte de Cro-Magnon.

On the run of 100 km. to Rocamadour, Proumeyssac Abyss, cage and motorwinch of one live horse power, beehive chamber, 150 ft. high and 120 ft. diameter. La Cave, entered by a cutting 450 yards long, fine sérac formations excavated from under mud.

From Rocamadour, Puits de Padirac, staircase of 200 seven inch steps in daylight, watercourse about 350 ft. below surface, small waterfalls over large and beautiful sérac formations, access by paths and boats, largest chamber 150 ft. across and about 300 ft. high, all deposits discoloured. Grotte de Zacheus.

Lourdes, Grotte de Bétharram, much larger than Padirac, contains the largest chamber they had ever seen though only 50 ft. high, deposits immense, after three hours rapid movement exit by a level three-quarter mile long. Biarritz, Grotte de Lare.

All these caves can be visited in Sunday clothes.