Ireby Fell Caven

We drove up last night to stay at the Northern Pennine Club's hut, Greenclose Cottage near Clapham. Pete Wagstaff was already there when we arrived at around 21:30 and there was no one else, which was surprising for an August Bank Holiday.
Up in the morning and Simon Brooks arrived in his red Porsche 911. We set off for Bernies at 09:00 to meet Keith and others as arranged. We ordered our usual Veggie Breakfasts, much to Steve Round's disgust!
Not long afterwards, Keith arrived followed by Simon Wynne not long after.
We had a quick trip next door to Inglesport so that Simon W. could rent a caving helmet and light seeing as he had left his at home by mistake.
Helmet renting finished, we set off for the parking place at Mason Gill Lane to get changed into caving gear. The forecast wasn't bad with some light rain showers and maybe a heavy shower or two but so far it was just overcast with sunny periods.
We walked up the rough lane then across the fields to arrive at the large shakehole containing the concrete pipe entrance to Ireby Fell Cavern.
Again, there was no one else about and we had the cave to ourselves as Keith set off first to carry out the rigging job.
We all followed and dropped down the usual Ding, Dong , Bell, Pussy, Well and Rope pitches and were soon walking down the impressive large passage called Duke Street, arriving at the sump to have a “Mars Bar Break”.
Soon we were making our way back towards the surface and I was first out to find the time was around 14:30 after having entered the cave at 11:30ish.
There was a very light shower while the rest as us waited for Keith to arrive last as he had also derigged the cave.
By the time he had arrived he rain had stopped and the ground was dry again.
We walked back to the cars to get changed and the made the usual return to Bernies for chip butties, etc.
Later in the evening we drove into Settle to find a pub for an evening meal and a drink and even though we were early at 19:00, all the pubs were full!
So, we found that the chip shop in the Market Square did take-away pizzas so we each ordered a pizza and retired to the nearby Talbot Arms for a quick drink. Afterwards we returned to collect our take-aways and and return to Greenclose Cottage to eat them.

Later in the night a couple of NPC members arrived.