Simon kindly organised a club trip to North Yorkshire for the 28-30th March, staying at Bradford Pothole Club. I've included a write-up of the caves I visited, but with 15 of us staying at the club, we had groups going to different caves each day. Caves visited by other members of our group included Notts, Curtain Pot, Rowten, Simpson's Pot and Aquamole.
I, Andrew, Jo and Morgan began the trip with a relatively short descent into pillar holes. We parked off a small road and spent a chilly few minutes getting ready in a brief shower of hail- thankfully it dried up in time for our walk up the moor, despite a cold breeze! The moorland became noticeably rougher as we ascended, with scattered limestone outcrops and a patch of grooved limestone pavement. Of the three entrance pots into Pillar Holes, Andrew rigged the middle while Morgan split off to rig the left.
Morgan preparing to rig his route
I and Jo followed Andrew down several short pitches, and after a slightly awkward traverse followed by a longer pitch, we reached the bottom of the main route through the cave. Here there was a large amount of loose rubble, some of which contained some rather nice fossils.
We briefly contemplated taking a look at the horizontal parts of the ‘dig’ which was the only way on, before deciding there were too many loose rocks (we had already knocked several from the pitches on the way down). Andrew returned up top to see how Morgan was getting on while Jo and I waited- it turned out Morgan’s rope hadn’t been quite long enough! Both he and Andrew made it down just as I was heading back up our route after Jo.
Jo ascending the pitch
It was tricky not to dislodge the loose rocks at the pitch heads on the way back up and there was a big crash as they finally fell down as Morgan came up- luckily he was last so there was no one below!
On the way out from Pillar Holes
We emerged onto the still-windy moorland a couple of hours after our descent and headed to Inglesport café for a nice warm drink.
Lost John’s Cave
Discussions on Friday evening centred around where to go the next day, as most of us were undecided. I was keen for somewhere a bit wet with some horizontal exploring as well as vertical, and Simon suggested Lost John’s. I, Paul, Simon, Ali, Paul and Helen headed there the next day.
In contrast to the rather steep walk the day before, we had a very easy two-minute stroll to the cave entrance. This consisted of a short clamour down into a stream running between two banks of limestone, which ran into the hillside and was assessable at a crouch. Ali, Helen and Paul split off to rig a separate route allowing us to do an exchange trip, and after a brief time in the streamway we came to our first pitch- only a short one this time.
Simon descending one of the longer pitches
Our second and third pitches were longer, the largest being approx. 130 feet down ‘centipede’. We followed a rather pretty narrow route with grottos visible on either side and had a look at the streamway visible below another pitch. We then began to head back, meeting briefly with Helen, Ali and Paul as we swapped routes. The way back involved more pitches and was a little more technical, although all were shorter than on our route down.
Descending a short pitch
Reaching the entrance streamway we decided to explore upstream, which was mostly easy walking. We came upon a boulder choke through which I started to crawl- but our progress was halted when a large boulder shifted and we quickly retreated and found our way to the exit. I had a quick crawl down a side passage while we waited for Ali, Helen and Paul to emerge- it happened to be very muddy so I ended up with by far the filthiest kit, which I think amused Simon! We went for a very enjoyable curry that evening.
White Scar Cave
Sunday dawned bright and sunny- by far the most pleasant day we’d had. The Dales looked glorious lit up in the sunshine. I was most excited for Sunday’s trip as we were visiting White Scar Cave (for which the favourable weather was particularly fortunate!), which I’d wanted to do for a while. Me, Simon, Helen, Paul, Andrew and Jo parked up outside for 9.30am and after a short wait for the showcave to open, were let in around 10am.
Early morning sunshine outside White Scar Cave
The showcave itself was rather nicely decorated with some attractive formations. We came shortly to the end of the metal showcave scaffolding, over which we climbed into the main streamway. The water rapidly deepened- it wasn’t so cold as I’d anticipated, and I had a lot of fun floating around paddling in it (though I can’t speak for anyone else!). After what felt like a relatively long swim, we climbed out into a much shallower streamway.
A disappointingly blurry photo of one of the caddisflies found in a group of approx. 15 deep in the cave, near to 'Carrot Hall'
We spent most of our time following the course of the water, which ranged from ankle-high to chest-deep. The walls were at points decorated with flowstone.
Simon looking at one of the formations
We briefly split from the main passageway to take a look at Straw Chamber. After a slippery scramble up a muddy bank (luckily there was an in-situ rope) we emerged into a good-sized room housing a fine collection of straws, some of which were very long.
The straws in Straw Chamber
We returned to the streamway for a short distance, coming to a junction. To the left a higher passage led away, the main route lying ahead with the streamway. We paused here while Andrew went a short way along the higher passage and I went a little way along the main route; the ceiling dropped, the water deepening. Simon called after a short while so I turned back, and once Andrew rejoined us we made our way out- we needed to exit in time to head home at 3pm.
One of the deeper points in the streamway
The journey back felt a lot shorter than it had on the way in- I think in part because the water was flowing with us instead of against us. We stopped for a hot drink at the showcave café before driving back to the hut to head home.
Overall a fantastic trip!
