Thackwaite Beck and other caves

[Xandar]

People present: Alex & Don.

Don really did not fancy a long drive to do the useal caving trips and I felt like something different so Thackwaite cave was chosen in Wensleydale after a long phone conversation. Grade 3 and 800 meters long we thought it would offer at least some entertainment.

We met for breakfast in Askrigg at a place called Humble pie and after eating completely non-pie related food, off we went. We followed the helpful directions from the York caving club to find the cave. I am not going to repeat their directions here.

Once arrived we hesitated about actually bothering about going underground partially because it was beautiful and surprising warm day but largly as my bloody new light that I have barely had a month has decided to pack in pretty much completely. I managed to eventually to persuade it come on, but it only allowed me a low 30 lumen light mode without even the ability to turn it off. (No the battery was charged!) Water condensation was again evident on the inside. I will be sending it back that’s for sure.

Anyway to the cave trip… After the entrance the cave grew in size to a wide Mossdale like stream-way, of equal gloominess. It was easy going the water was never deeper than waste deep. There was a few route finding issues requiring a squeeze to the right behind the boulders and an almost duck under a low bit. It was all very dark, but that may be down to my light. After some loose stuff we reached stal chamber. No need for a neo-fleece in this cave.

(All pictures were taken with Don’s light)

From here a dodgey climb up then down boulders (by-passable by going underneath on the left) and more wetness led us up yet more boulders and down into a huge chamber, that stretched off into the distance like Snail cavern. Most impressive for a cave in this part of the Dales, what else around here awaits to be found?

From here we had a lot of ferreting between boulders before finding the way on again on the right in a rift between boulders. It was at this point the cave changed from being like the big bits of Mossdale entrance series to Langcliff Nemesis boulder choke, making us both a little nervous.

We passed a duck

And after more ferreting we could not find a way on say 50m beyond the duck and we assume we reached the end as described in Northern Caves 1. The return journey was far easier as we made a mental note of all the twists and turns, of which there are many in this cave and were soon at the entrance. We decided to give the alternative entrance a go, which was the only difficult thing about the cave. A low crawl with some awkward manoeuvres and some big spiders.

Back outside and after Don had done screaming we followed the beck down, popping into a mine level on route to warm up. After that quick trip and our hands suitably re-warmed We descended a steep gully and noticed a few caves. Now I have checked the book, they don’t appear to be listed. If these are new we have decided to call them Rabbit holes 1,2 & 3 owing to the amount of actual rabbit holes about.

SD98201 90693 Rabbit hole 1 – About 10 ft above the dry beck, lies a small hole. A crawl inside enters a chamber about a body length long and 1 meter high. To the left after a meter it chokes and to the right after another body length it chokes in an easily diggable slope down… passage continues? No draft noticed. Length 4m.
SD98198 90695 Rabbit hole 2 – About 15m above the beck almost directly above Rabbit Hole 1. A crawl enters a small moss covered chamber about 2 x 2 and 1m high. No way on. Length 3.5m
SD98197 90703 Rabbit hole 3 – Further along, upstream of Rabbit Hole 2 at the same height. The most exciting to explore. Don poked his head in and said it did nothing so I took a look, and could see he was wrong, initially at least. A flat out crawl over rabbit droppings enters a sizeable almost stooping height chamber with two ways on. Left ends in a blank wall after 4 meters, right gains height and becomes stooping for 10m, before also ending at a wall. This was made of mud however and would be diggable. A rabbit sized hole continued on from here. Again no draft, the cave stank and contained very stale air. Length 15m.

Maybe we should really start to explore this area, the limestone seems really thick as it goes all the way up the hill, there has got to be lots of depth potential?

[Scaife]

Good work chaps. Let’s go and explore the limestone.

[Dunc]

Maybe we should really start to explore this area, the limestone seems really thick as it goes all the way up the hill, there has got to be lots of depth potential

If memory serves me right Wensleydale is made up of the Yoredale series, which is beds of limestone separated by shale and other rock. So not one continuous big block, you won’t get much depth unless there’s a fault that allows water to pass from one bed to another (like at Langcliffe) or the cave follows the dip for a very long way.
However, the Yoredales support some impressive/long caves – Fairy, Cliff Force, the mazes etc.. miles of passages await the lucky explorer in that neck of the woods…

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