A world normally hidden to walkers is opened up this weekend in the Yorkshire Dales.
Gaping Gill's main chamber
Craven Pothole Club will set up its winch at Gaping Gill, a 105m (345ft) deep vertical shaft leading into a main chamber big enough, reputedly, to hold York Minster. For a tenner, you can descend into an underworld normally the preserve of cavers and potholers.
No caving experience is necessary, and the descent – and subsequent ascent – are effortless if a little damp as you pass through a waterfall en route.
Gaping Gill lies about half way up Ingleborough, one of Yorkshire’s Three Peaks, from Clapham.
From Saturday, 16 August, the winch will be open to members of the public from 8am at the weekend and 9am weekdays. The final day of operation is Bank Holiday Monday, 25 August, when trips are possible only in the morning, to enable dismantling of the apparatus later in the day.
Gaping Gill has two ‘winch meets’ each year, the August one run by the Craven Club and the May Bank Holiday event operated by the Bradford Pothole Club.
grough took the trip underground a couple of years ago. You can read the account here.
For further details, visit the Craven Pothole Club website.
OMR
19 August 2008Aye, a tenner to get lowered into a muckle great hole in the ground. How much to get taken out again??? [smiley=wink]