Ingleborough south west flank

Duck ditch

New member
Has anybody associated any of the risings on the south west flank with any sinks on the plateau?Between Skirwith Cave and Moses Well.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
The following extract, from a long(ish) topic on Grey Wife Sike last year, is one little snippet. The link to the whole topic is:

https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=26321.0

the shakehole where Grey Wife Sike ends was named "P1" by the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society when they did their classic water tracing programme on Ingleborough in the late 19th Century. They also successfully traced it to Moses Well ("S7") in the bottom of the Clapdale valley.

. . . and . . .

P1 is definitely the shakehole which the present O.S. map shows the downstream end of GWS leading to (at SD73257125). The late 19th C YGPS map shows this clearly, with a drainage line running confidently from it straight to Moses Well. (Incidentally this is almost perfectly parallel with the line of the North Craven Fault, also shown on the same YGPS map.) It's a long way down the fell from the Newby Moss Pot / P2a / P2b group.

The above YGPS test is the only one I'm aware of in your area of interest.
Most of the drainage on that side of Ingleborough goes either NW or SE, due to a combination of the main joint / fault trends and the trend of the ridges & valleys in the ancient basement rocks below the limestone. This is why there are no large risings between Ingleton and Clapham. Blindfield Well next to the back road near Cold Cotes is a reasonable sized spring after a long wet spell but its flow characteristics and absence of peat staining strongly suggest a localised percolation catchment. (It's an essential farm water supply so must not be interfered with.)

The spring I've always been interested in is the one in the upper part of Jenkin Beck, next to the footpath from Slatenber to the Crina Bottom track. If anyone has traced any sinks to there it'd be great to see the information in this topic.
 

Duck ditch

New member
Thanks pitlamp.  There is quite a lot of these percolated risings along the base which can pump out a lot of water.  Certainly recently like you say they are peat free.  The Moses well ?fault? seems to take everything that way.  There are a lot of shakeholes below the main bench which I?m thinking might feed these smaller resurgences and therefore not as interesting as they might be if they went to Moses well.
Got the message re water supply etc. 
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Ah, I see what you mean.

Been trying to remember any other traces for you; the only one I can think of that may be of interest is the massive depression up the valley behind Clapdale farm - that's been tested to Moses Well. I've never come across mention of any positive traces to any of the springs between Clapham and Ingleton. Most of them seem to emerge from deep glacial till (as that side was in the lee of Ingleborough during ice advances from the north, so a lot of it got dumped).
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
I haven't got any geological references to hand but I wondered if Jenkins Beck drained the limestone between the two Craven faults.  There are no known traces to JB from any of the caves of the main limestone block.  This might apply to other springs lower down the hill?
 

Duck ditch

New member
Interesting thought.  It would mean that the water on one side of the fault goes to Moses well.  Which it does. While on the other side the water drains in exactly the opposite direction to Jenkins beck.  Having said that I have no idea. 
I?m sort of surprised how many resurgences there are just draining the lower slopes and Jenkins beck too.  Meanwhile the large resurgence of Moses Well sort of didn?t feel large enough. 
It?s just feeling I had the other day in wet conditions. 
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Moses Well isn't really a big resurgence; the higher Cat Hole is where the big flow comes out in wet conditions (as Moses is a recent underflow route).

You've asked an interesting question here though and I'm as intrigued as you about what others think.

Badlad's thought (re the area between the two main Craven faults) makes sense to me.
 

Duck ditch

New member
How high up the slopes are the two faults?  Are they around the high and low troughs marked on o.s.
Has cat hole been dye tested to long kin west etc.
If Jenkins beck (rises) takes the water between the faults that?s quite significant. 
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Duck ditch said:
How high up the slopes are the two faults?  Are they around the high and low troughs marked on o.s.
Has cat hole been dye tested to long kin west etc.
If Jenkins beck (rises) takes the water between the faults that?s quite significant.

I think the strip of limestone SW of the NCF is quite narrow. Have a look at this geological mapping tool: https://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html

It would appear that the NCF passes through Jenkin Beck SW of the rising of interest.
High & Low Troughs are clearly fault guided but they're a long way above (NE of) the NCF.
(Incidentally they may be a continuation of the Clapdale Fault further to the SE.) There is at least one other fault between High & Low Troughs, running at an angle to them.

At Ingleton the NCF crosses the road just to the SW of Skirwith Cave; at Clapham it passes through the head of the lake in the Nature Trail.

In the area of Blindfield Well above Cold Cotes the NCF runs pretty much along the back road.

Beware of using that mapping tool; it can be quite absorbing (i.e. time consuming!).

Although it's highly likely they're hydrologically connected, I'm not aware of any test from LKW where tracer was picked up at Cat Hole. The test would have to be timed well and would probably involve getting  a right soaking en route up to LKW.
 
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