February 2019

The owners emphasised that they are extremely happy for people to continue visiting the caves on their land, and they have no desire to prevent access; nor do they wish to be bothered by people asking permission for access.

However, they do have concerns about parking of vehicles on their land. Despite best efforts by Andrew and Alan to encourage an alternative, the owners were clear that a parking charge will be levied for anyone wanting to park on their land in future. This fee will be ?10 for cars and ?15 for minibuses, paid into an honesty box using an envelope (provided by the visitor) labelled with the vehicle registration.

Read the full details here: https://cncc.org.uk/news/20190226-important-update-on-cave-access-at-high-birkwith

Glad access has been maintained.

Not open access so it is their right and I guess someone has to pay for the track, but I think I will still walk there should I ever want to visit.

Slightly disappointing regarding the parking.

As a comparison, you can park in central London, Zone 2, in a lit, guarded car park for  ?8.50 a day.

On the other hand, as most caving will be done in groups of 3 or 4, that takes it down again to around the price of a pint, which sounds much more reasonable.

Their land, their rules of course and they could have slapped a ban on access so good on them for not doing that. 
Not everyone caves in big groups, and this fee is designed as a car deterrent and it is. There are not a lot of easy none srt family friendly caves around and it's a shame that a paywall has been started for Old Ings, a classic first ever cave for a five year old, Birkwith and Browgill. I used to quite like stopping to pay my modest fee and exchange a greeting before this. If no one was around, leave it on the wall of course.
A fiver in the honesty box seems reasonable, a tenner less so.
I wonder if the good folk who have the Alum Pot land are stroking their chin and thinking, Hmmmm.
I wish them well in their new home though, it's a lovely location.

text refers explicitly to parking.

would dropping off friends be exempt?

serious question.

marysboy said:

text refers explicitly to parking.

would dropping off friends be exempt?

serious question.

Click to expand...

It would not be far to walk up the hill from the gate at the end of the public road if you did want to make a drop-off.

Probably a better option than driving up the track and back. Less likely to cause an upset with the new owners.

ali_mac said:

As a comparison, you can park in central London, Zone 2, in a lit, guarded car park for  ?8.50 a day.

Click to expand...

yeah, but the London caves aren't as good

People getting huffy about a ?10 parking fee.....remind me again how much a pint is in your favourite watering hole..... :

About ?3 - ?3.50, maybe you guys pay ?10 down south???

You also have got to remember the cave's in Yorkshire and their wallets generally contain active colonies of moths. I think the common phrase I hear having moved to the Dales 5 years ago is: "How much!!?" But over in Lancashire where I am from we don't really like to spend money either, we simply are not as rich as most southerners.

Maybe that's what we should say to the landowner, who might not be from around Yorkshire and don't understand this.

A Yorkshireman is like a Scotsman with all the generosity removed.... :