richardg
Active member
Hi Batty Wife Cave is without doubt one of the shortest easiest caves in the country, You can drive along the road, park in the layby, and the cave is just over the other side of the road, An inviting stooping height entrance, which develops into roomy crawl.
The cave is listed in the Northern Caves guide book as Grade 1 and just 9 metres in length.
At the head of the beautiful Ribblesdale valley, it is said by many that the large stream that wells up out of the ground by the caves entrance is the true source of the River Ribble.
Our team has recently been engaged in a number of dye tests around the Dales, resulting in very interesting results,
At the back of Batty Wife Cave is the sound a stream, one might presume this to be one and the same as that resurging by the entrance however excavating into the choke it becomes apparent this is an independent stream that has a separate downstream route.
There is a very big spring of water a little down the hill which would be the obvious resurgence, but as we wanted to be sure, so put some dye into this independent streamway, then waited fifty minutes observing the various springs locally.....no dye was seen!
Very interesting result as it shows the possibility of a cave system bypassing the local Ribblehead risings and heading further down the valley or even crossing over into the Chapel le Dale Valley.
We've since rerun the test with even more and better quality dye, and walked down valley for about half a mile to include other possible resurgences and allowed almost three hours for the dye to show, the water levels were high so we could observe any water mixing or overflow towards any other risings in the area...... no dyed showed along this half mile stretch of the River Ribble....
Along with other ongoing projects, our team have begun dismantling the choke at the back of Batty Wife Cave in order to pursue the second streamway, an exciting project, we will keep whoever is interested informed.
Simon Beck, Johnie Stodart and Richard Gibson.
The cave is listed in the Northern Caves guide book as Grade 1 and just 9 metres in length.
At the head of the beautiful Ribblesdale valley, it is said by many that the large stream that wells up out of the ground by the caves entrance is the true source of the River Ribble.
Our team has recently been engaged in a number of dye tests around the Dales, resulting in very interesting results,
At the back of Batty Wife Cave is the sound a stream, one might presume this to be one and the same as that resurging by the entrance however excavating into the choke it becomes apparent this is an independent stream that has a separate downstream route.
There is a very big spring of water a little down the hill which would be the obvious resurgence, but as we wanted to be sure, so put some dye into this independent streamway, then waited fifty minutes observing the various springs locally.....no dye was seen!
Very interesting result as it shows the possibility of a cave system bypassing the local Ribblehead risings and heading further down the valley or even crossing over into the Chapel le Dale Valley.
We've since rerun the test with even more and better quality dye, and walked down valley for about half a mile to include other possible resurgences and allowed almost three hours for the dye to show, the water levels were high so we could observe any water mixing or overflow towards any other risings in the area...... no dyed showed along this half mile stretch of the River Ribble....
Along with other ongoing projects, our team have begun dismantling the choke at the back of Batty Wife Cave in order to pursue the second streamway, an exciting project, we will keep whoever is interested informed.
Simon Beck, Johnie Stodart and Richard Gibson.
