Caving Experience (private Booking)

Hopefully now you aren’t thinking ‘caving, you must be mad’. It really isn’t all about confined wet spaces.

Caving in the Yorkshire Dales is a great adventure and one that not many people have done! Your mind will be bamboozled by the passage ways, underground waterfalls, fossils, stalactites, stalagmites, flow stone and all the other cool stuff you find underground.

Once you have booked we will arrange a call with you to discuss how we can tailor the experience to what you want to achieve or expect. There are lots of stunning caves to choose from in the Yorkshire Dales, but it all depends on the weather. This is why we don’t offer caves by a fixed location, just north dales and south dales.

In the North Dales we are limited on what we can offer as in terms of accessible caves, if you are happy to drive roughly one hour from Reeth or Leyburn to the South Dales there is a lot more choice. (Please note that if the water levels are high we will have to cave in the South Dales).

In the South Dales there are endless places to go caving and it is an area that can cater for everyone and with the great British weather being rather wet at times it also gives us more freedom as to where to go. We will always meet at Ribblehead Viaduct and decide where to go from there.
On your caving experience you will be led by a highly experienced and qualified instructor.

We provide you with the following kit to make you not only look the part but to be safe and feel comfortable:

• Helmet
• Head torch (candles are optional)
• Caving over suit
• Caving belt
• Knee pads
• Wellies

Here are a few caves we could explore in the Yorkshire Dales:

• Long Churns, Upper Long Churns and Wilsons Cave – this cave system is one of the best in the Yorkshire Dales, it is suitable for first time cavers to experienced cavers. It has it all, there are short climbs, traverses round pools of water, you can follow the large stream way to Dr Banister’s Hand Basin or squeeze through the famous cheese press.
• Crackpot Cave – situated in Swaledale in the North Dales. There are loads of great cave formations to be seen such as stalactites, stalagmites and even a column, once you get passed a narrow crawl at the entrance. The final chamber in crackpot cave is called ‘The Turnip Field’ and it will make you go ‘WOW’!
• Runscar and Thistle – A prefect cave for first time cavers young or old! It is a series of small caves that are excellent for families, school groups and team building days. It is situated next to the Station Inn at Ribblehead Viaduct.
• Great Douk – an exciting trip underground, it’s a great venue to learn about cave formations and the karst formations above ground. This is a through trip meaning we go in one way and come out the other. We navigate our way through a twisting passageway, where you can squeeze through fissures in the bedrock.
• Yordas Cave – Yordas is a 19th Century show cave. We will descend the carved steps into the impressive, which is fifteen metres wide and sixty metres high, from there, there is passageway that leads into another chamber called ‘The Chapter House’ which has a stunning waterfall.
• Browgill Cave – a cave system that has it all, breath taking sights, amazing cave formations and various challenges. There are stalactites and stalagmites that have taken thousands of years to develop throughout the cave and places where you can squeeze and squirm your way through into what is called a phreatic passageway.
• Dow Cave – Situated just outside the old cotton and lead mining village of Kettlewell. The main part of the cave follows the large stream way, which has mini beaches (for cave bathing) and as you work your way towards the mighty impressive final chamber, you will pass old mine workings from the early 1800’s. There are also passages to explore and climb.

Our caving experiences are approximately 3 to 3.5 hours long and are ran either in a morning or afternoon.

They are suitable for the ages of 7 upwards and for all shapes and sizes.

So if you don’t want a tight squeeze, but a walk in the park (Cave), and you don’t want to be climbing, crawling, sliding in mud and water then there is still something for you. But if you do want short climbs, crawls sliding in mud and water then we can certainly cater for you too.