I arrived on Leck Fell just after dark, but found the entrance quickly – from the parking spot a bit further up the road than the Lost Johns one you just follow the stream downhill, then stay in the dry valley until you reach the fenced enclosure past Rumbling.

The short first pitch is just inside the entrance and is followed by a squeeze, then a fairly narrow passage to the awkward head of the second pitch. The next bit of passage is wider, but still sideways crawling, and leads to the final pitch, which may be considered more than one pitch, but I rigged with a single 50m rope. There’s a resin anchor, then a slight narrowness before the tiny Y-hang. On the way down there is a single-bolt rebelay, deviation and Y-hang rebelay – all of which are easy as pie.

I exited without further ado. A total time underground of an hour and twenty minutes – Long Drop is a great choice for an evening trip, and pretty much all weather too.

I was feeling all bold and gnarly walking back up the hill, until I yelped like a little child when I nearly stepped on six sleeping partridges, which promptly flew off making quite the cacophony.