Caving in the Yorkshire Dales, Ireby Fell Cavern

Again, the day began with breakfast at Bernies followed by the short drive to Mason Gill Lane to park up at the beginning of the rough track leading to the caves of Kingsdale along the Turbary Road.

We were pleased to find ourselves alone after yesterday's busy caving but a couple of more cars arrived as we were getting changed.

Bad news: they also were heading for Ireby Fell cavern. Good News: they were digging and were planning to follow the Bubbles Route alternative to Ding, Dong and Bell initial pitches. Excellent! We would practically have the cave to ourselves.

It was Keith's turn to rig and we set off for the walk to the cave entrance which was a warm job wearing our furry suits and oversuits despite the cool weather.

At the entrance to the Cavern, we had a chat with the three cavers of the digging party (Andy, and I think he called then Dave and Ruth – we recognised the one I think called Dave as he works in Inglesport). They then headed down the slippery concrete tubes of the cave entrance, which luckily now has a short section of metal ladder which makes exiting much easier.

We passed the other party just inside and followed down the first three pitches called “Ding”, Dong” and “Bell”.

Below the next pitch, called “Pussy”, the three diggers caught us up and we let them gate past as this crawling section was more than wide enough.

Soon we had dropped the remaining pitches “Well” and “Rope” and made our way through passages until we reached the junction with the impressive Duke Street which is a large sandy-floored easy walking passage ending in a sump.

The diggers were her as their dig was in a small tube on the opposite side of the junction. We had a quick look at the dig and then followed Duke Street passing an in-situ rope dangling from above until we reached the sump.

I crawled in a short way to have a look at the sump.

After a short stop sitting on the slippery mud banks near the sump, we turned around and headed out. The diggers asked if we had looked at Ireby Fell II but we told them we didn't know the way: it was up the in-situ rope. Oh well, we'll have a look next time!

We reached the surface with Keith de-rigging again and were happy to see it was still dry with sunny periods despite a forecast of possible light rain in the afternoon.

We walked back to the cars and after changing, it was back to Bernie's!