Journey into the hidden depths

I am sitting in what looks like a glorified yellow shopping basket.

A trap door in the gantry slides opens and I’m suddenly hurtling down 100 metres into Yorkshire’s very own black hole, the cavern of Gaping Gill.

The descent is dream-like.

The throbbing of the generator powering the winch suddenly fades to be replaced by the continuous hiss of water.

I’m alone, totally disorientated and plunged into the darkness of the biggest known cave chamber in the UK.

The dripping mossy sides of the shaft rush by just inches away and fine spray cascades down, beside and on top of me. Initially, it’s hard to tell where I am in relation the sides of the shaft and how much of the descent I’ve completed.

But then, suddenly, the shaft opens out and I realise that I must be at the top of the chamber as below is a hazy pool of light and a group of people looking up from the base winch station.

When I get there – just a minute after setting off – I’m released from the chair and take my first faltering step across slippery pebbles under the watchful eye of a member of the Craven Pothole Club clad, like her colleagues, from head to toe in bright yellow waterproofs.

I feel like I’ve entered another world and encountered a lost species of trawlermen.

My children arrived ahead of me and the guide leads us away to allow our eyes time to adjust to the light and then provides a brief tour of the cavern.

The noise and echo of the water makes conversation difficult but I hear him explain that that if a stone transported in the main waterfall landed on your head then it would have sufficient force to puncture your helmet.

Thousands of stones have come into the cave this way, accumulating over the centuries to a depth of 70ft, which is what we are standing on.

To reduce danger from falling stones, the club dams the main waterfall at the entrance to the gill, diverting the water towards another entry point and away from visitors.

We’re also told that it takes 11 days for the water in Gaping Gill to percolate down to Ingleborough Cave, which we’d passed on the walk up from Clapham and is open to the public in a more regular fashion.

The main chamber of the Gill is almost large enough to accommodate York Minster and even though the network of tunnels leading off it were first explored in 1895 many remain uncharted.

As we debate like Chilean miners which of our party of three should be the last up we watch the dangling specks of other visitors ascending and descending out of and into the mist and the giant aperture of the shaft. This must be the most spectacular enclosed view in the country.

Going up is probably better than going down as our eyes have adjusted and, having spent an hour or so in the cavern what we’re looking down at makes more sense.

The helmet restricts complete vertical movement, though, and the chinstrap at these heights is essential.

Gaping Gill is open to the public just two weeks per year – over the spring bank holiday by the Bradford Pothole Club and over the August bank holiday by the Craven Pothole Club.

Members stay in a sort of tented shanty town which centres around three marquees with a combination of roles you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.

One is a mess area, another is the Trenchfoot Arms [the beer tent] and the third provides a check-in.

The process is rather like a cross between voting at a polling station and placing your entries in the produce tent at an agricultural show. Each participant fills in a form and then is given a yellow wristband with a numbering indicating order of descent.

It’s understandably a 
serious business operated on a “count them all out and count them all back” basis and, in such a remote location, with not a computer in sight.

No cards accepted. Going down is free, they say, but coming back up is £10.

Gaping Gill is paradoxically one of England’s most extraordinary but least-visited destinations and, as such, I felt almost privileged to have been one of its few visitors last year.

The fact that there’s no alternative but to walk for 2¾ miles to get there further boosts the feeling of exclusivity and makes the day out all the more of an expedition.

This is one place that it’s definitely worth going along to just for the ride.

The bad news is that you 
will have to wait until 2013 
to take part in a winched decent into the main 
chamber cave.

The Gaping Gill winch 
meet runs from August 18-27.

Inevitably weather is a consideration when contemplating a visit to Gaping Gill and prolonged heavy rain will bring winching to a temporary halt. Even local forecasts are not always a reliable guide to predicting the weather at Gaping Gill.

For further information visit www.cravenpotholeclub.org or email [email protected].

Exploring Yorkshire’s ‘black hole’

Gaping Gill is on the slopes of Ingleborough, and usually reached by walking up from Clapham via Ingleborough Cave.

You can’t book. We arrived at the entrance at 1.30pm on a weekday and were on our way down within 30 mins. If you can get there early then you’re advised to do so – and at 4pm when we left there was no queue.

Allow an hour within the cavern – partly because you will have to wait for your turn to go back up.

Wear waterproofs. The temperature in the cavern isn’t that much lower than outside so additional layers aren’t probably necessary.