24-581: Jib Tunnel , also known as Lateral Passage is one of the entrances into the Gaping Gill cave system, located behind a large boulder in the north bank of Fell Beck adjacent to Gaping Gill Main Shaft. Although short, it leads to Lateral Shaft, a direct descent into Gaping Gill Main Chamber which is a popular caving route, and has had considerable significance in the history of the exploration of Gaping Gill. It lies within
48-456: A 49 metres (161 ft) descent. A short traverse to the east leads to the final 35 metres (115 ft) pitch, which lands in the Main Chamber. Rat Hole Sink is located 10 metres (33 ft) upstream of the main entrance where the water sinks. The entrance is normally covered with a grating. Below this a squirm downwards leads straight into the upstream passage of Rat Hole. When the stream
72-415: A 5 metres (16 ft) pitch at the bottom of which the water disappears down a gully, the way on being across some chock stone boulders to the main pitch. A descent of this is objectively dangerous, as it takes all the water and passes areas of sharp, tottering flakes. The current route descends a few metres but then swings into the rift to the east. From here a pendulum traverse leads to a ledge overlooking
96-418: A stream passage, and hence to a 100-metre (330 ft) shaft into Gaping Gill Main Chamber. The sharp and loose nature of the rock, and the quantity of water prevented full exploration for over 80 years, but the current route is described in one guide book as "a technical and exhilarating adventure". It lies within the designated Ingleborough Site of Special Scientific Interest . Rat Hole is an inlet feeding
120-422: A winch above the shaft to provide a ride to the bottom and back out again for any member of the public who pays a fee. A detailed 3D model of the chamber has been created using an industrial laser rangefinder which showed that its volume is comparable to the size of York Minster . The first recorded attempted descent was by John Birkbeck in 1842 who reached a ledge approximately 55 metres (180 ft) down
144-579: Is diverted, Rat Hole Sink provides easier access to the Rat Hole pitches than the traditional entrance. During the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club initial explorations of Gaping Gill the entrance to Rat Hole was buried under a bank of boulder clay, but this had washed clear by 1909. The cave was explored by C. Wingfield and E. Addyman as far as the junction with the main stream, and was surveyed by H. Brodrick and L. Slingsby, and with Wingfield, explored as far as
168-413: Is possible up the main shaft which requires very dry conditions. It was first pioneered in 1972 with ten points of aid. The first free ascent was made in 1988. Rat Hole, Gaping Gill Rat Hole is one of the entrances to the Gaping Gill cave system, located in the north bank of Fell Beck 30 metres (33 yd) upstream of Gaping Gill Main Shaft. A small, awkward, tube-like passage descends into
192-471: The Craven Pothole Club started to dig out the sink, P14, as well as the entrance to Rat Hole itself, and continued their efforts the following year. P14 was the first to go and was named Rat Hole Sink, and the main entrance succumbed soon after. An attempt was then made to rig the pitch for SRT. One member started the descent but soon found himself amidst a forest of sharp and loose flakes. He reached
216-510: The Gaping Gill main shaft complex. A snug crawl of about 25 metres (82 ft) with a few bends passes a couple of minor inlets before dropping down a 3 metres (10 ft) climb. The passage below almost immediately joins a stream passage flowing from the left, carrying the Rat Hole Sink water. Upstream, easy going leads to the Rat Hole Sink entrance. Downstream leads after a few metres to
240-530: The Main Chamber. Jib Tunnel was used for explorations of the system until 1921, when the current system of lowering the winch from a gantry positioned across the corner of the Main Shaft was developed. There have been three deaths in the cave . In 1982 Ted Holstead died after losing control when abseiling down the shaft. In 1989 Keith Mann died of exposure whilst prusiking up the shaft on rope. In 1995 eleven-year-old Lee Craddock wandered into Jib Tunnel and fell down
264-497: The big pitch. This was plumbed to a ledge 33 metres (108 ft) above the Main Chamber floor in 1912 by Wingfield, which he succeeded in reaching in 1913 by traversing across from Lateral Shaft , which was used at the time for winch descents. Rat Hole Sink was first identified as a major water sink by the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club in 1912 when they were conducting a survey of Fell Beck, its sinks, and associated passages. It
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#1732852729815288-400: The designated Ingleborough Site of Special Scientific Interest . A short wriggle between the shakehole wall and a large boulder leads into the roomy passage. After 5 metres (16 ft) this abruptly drops 98 metres (322 ft) to the floor of the Main Chamber. Although a direct descent is possible, a considerable waterfall enters from Spout Tunnel 12 metres (39 ft) below the lip, so
312-451: The entrance was blocked with glacial fill until a flood in 1872, when it got washed out. He wriggled round the large boulder and reached the shaft which he estimated as being in excess of 90 metres (300 ft) deep. In 1895 Edward Calvert, of the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club , attempted to replicate Edouard Martel 's descent of the Main Shaft of a few weeks earlier, but failed to get beyond Birkbeck's Ledge at −60 metres (−200 ft) because of
336-496: The floor. Mike Wooding and John Gardner picked up the baton in late 1985, and in establishing a safer SRT route, discovered the Mousehole shaft which proved to be the key to the modern descent. They entered it about 15 to 20 metres (49 to 66 ft) from the top, and were intrigued by an inlet coming in from the roof. By hanging a rope through a small hole in a calcite chamber above the first pitch they were able to pendulum across at
360-439: The impressive adjacent Mousehole (pronounced / ˈ m aʊ z əl / ) shaft. Above the ledge an aven leads to a small inlet passage. Across the pitch, a traverse leads to a draughting passage which passes under two small avens before becoming too tight. Mousehole terminates in a floor with a window through to the Gaping Gill rift, but the route deviates to the south and finishes on a large well-watered scoop-shaped ledge after
384-568: The largest known underground chambers in Britain, the water disappears into the bouldery floor and eventually resurges adjacent to Ingleborough Cave . The shaft was the deepest known in Britain, until Titan in Derbyshire was discovered in 1999. Gaping Gill still retains the records for the highest unbroken waterfall in England and the largest underground chamber naturally open to the surface. Due to
408-411: The main ledge at −60 metres (−200 ft) and decided to retreat. This plan was foiled when he discovered that the rope had almost cut through 10 metres (33 ft) above the ledge, and he had to return to the ledge leaving some of his ascending gear still attached to the rope. He then had a draughty wait for several hours before someone in the Main Chamber was able to confirm that his second rope reached
432-469: The main water enters down a 9 metres (30 ft) pitch . Above this a further 3 metres (9.8 ft) climb enters 49 metres (161 ft) of passage which gets too small close to a sink in Fell Beck opposite Rat Hole Sink . Below the pitch a small passage continues for another 25 metres (82 ft), and is thought to drain the area just to the east of the blind valley. Professor McKenny Hughes reported that
456-419: The modern route, known as Dihedral , deviates away from this to land on a ledge some 50 metres (160 ft) down. The route then leaves the shaft to drop down the rift above the Main Chamber, before emerging through the roof and dropping the final 30 metres (98 ft) to the floor. Spout Tunnel can be entered by swinging in from a rope or ladder. The passage becomes narrow, and after 37 metres (121 ft)
480-413: The number of entrances which connect into the cave, many different routes through and around the system are possible. Other entrances include Jib Tunnel , Disappointment Pot , Stream Passage Pot , Bar Pot , Hensler's Pot , Corky's Pot , Rat Hole , and Flood Entrance Pot . The Bradford Pothole Club around Whitsun May Bank Holiday, and the Craven Pothole Club around August Bank Holiday, each set up
504-417: The quantity of water. Looking up, he could see that the shaft divided behind a curtain. Later in the year he entered Jib Tunnel, and realised that this was the parallel shaft that he had seen, and that a man could be lowered directly to the floor of the Main Chamber from its lip. The following year, he set up a series of jibs and pulleys, and was lowered in a boatswain's chair, becoming the second person to reach
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#1732852729815528-521: The shaft to his death whilst on an outing organised by the Scouting Association . Gaping Gill Gaping Gill (also known as Gaping Ghyll ) is a natural cave in North Yorkshire , England. It is one of the unmistakable landmarks on the southern slopes of Ingleborough – a 98-metre (322 ft) deep pothole with the stream Fell Beck flowing into it. After falling through one of
552-532: The shaft which bears his name. The first complete descent was achieved by Édouard-Alfred Martel in 1895. On 16 May 1937 Eric Hensler (1907–1991) explored a low passage leading off Booth-Parsons crawl, finding it to be unexplored. This was later named Hensler's Crawl and was also found to lead into Hensler's Master Cave. In 1983 members of the Cave Diving Group made the underwater connection into Ingleborough Cave . An extreme rock-climb ( graded E3, 5c)
576-418: Was referred to as both P14 and Rat Hole Sink. In 1935, Craven Pothole Club took up the challenge of the undescended big pitch and after dragging in over 70 metres (230 ft) of rope ladder with associated lifelines, Arnold Waterfall and Edgar Smith achieved the first descent into Main Chamber, but no one made the ascent. Interest in Rat Hole then waned, and by 1960 the entrance passage was choked. In 1983
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