dow cave; complete novice.

[kay]

Can someone tell me about Thistle and Runscar Caves please
Thanks.
Rob xx

At Ribblehead. Park in the layby that's on the other side of the road from the bacon butty van and almost opposite (just a bit further up the road - ie not the car park down by the pub). Look straight across and you'll see a small limestone scar. They're both up towards there. They're both basically linear caves with several entrances along their length, running from the area of the scar roughly back towards the pub. Runscar is near the scar, Thistle is parallel and nearer the viaduct.

Both have one of their entrances in big shakeholes, Runscar has a low entrance below a tiny cliff, and an entrance below the scar itself. Poke around and see what you find - none of the entrances lead to desperate flat out crawls, which is a useful identifying characteristic.

Above the scar you might come across a hole at the back of the pavement which is the old entrance to Scar Top, and which may be open. It's a bit of a wiggle to get in (and more of a wiggle to get out with gravity against you if you're a large male and not a small female) but it's a very worthwhile cave. It has another entrance in the boulder cave which forms the top end of Runscar, which is a bit of a challenge for navigation - hint - keep left, then drop down the impossible looking slot behind a rock flake.

If you go down to the where the path goes under the viaduct, and just before you get there take the obvious old raised track, you'll see an abandoned linekiln to your right and a an obvious low cave over on the left. That's one of the lower entrances of Roger Kirk, another one worth exploring. If you go in through the bottom and carry on up (traversing in the ceiling when the stream gets too grovelly) you'll get to a point where there's a flake of rock to your right. Ahead, the passage goes over a boulder choke and into West Sink, which gets steadily lower and smaller. Instead, look behind the flake for a hole in the wall - the Tube - carry on through there for an easier way out.

P.S. i'm considering caving books, what book have you got?

As Dunc and Damian say, Northern Caves 2 is invaluable. Or join a club - Bradford are doing the Ribblehead Caves next Sunday (not sure which ones). It's a really good way to learn where caves are.

 

[lmarlow]

I've always found that newbies find the final exit to Runscar a real challenge. It is a short water filled canal (usually plenty of air space) followed by a reasonably tight squeeze to daylight. It makes them feel like they have done some proper caving as opposed to having just gone for a walk in the dark. The top section of Thistle is also quite nice. Short muddy hands and knees crawl out of the initial sink hole which opens up into a chamber with some nice straw features. Final section of cave is a quite intimidating flat out crawl over rubble just after the entrance, most newcomers don't bother.

 

[dunc]

Above the scar you might come across a hole at the back of the pavement which is the old entrance to Scar Top, and which may be open.

It is open, was there myself last year but didn't exit that way as I wanted the challenge of crawling back to Runscar   - but on the try caving weekend some members of the club did use that hole as an exit.

 

[kay]

Ah, I didn't know to what extent it got blocked. NC suggests it isn't open, but like you I was there last year. I'm probably smaller than you - climbing out of that hole is probably more difficult for me than the crawl back to Runscar, though the lure of daylight makes it considerably more appealing!

 

[Skyrmy]

Ah, I didn't know to what extent it got blocked. NC suggests it isn't open, but like you I was there last year. I'm probably smaller than you - climbing out of that hole is probably more difficult for me than the crawl back to Runscar, though the lure of daylight makes it considerably more appealing!

Aye, as Dunc said, we sent the novices (3) out that way rather than have them endure the crawling again - they did very well to get to the final chamber considering I thought that we may have encountered problems/fears at the "slot".

 

[damian]

It is possible that Northern Caves 2: The Three Peaks" is still available in Inglesport and Bernie's, in which case I'd strongly recommend buying it.

I can confirm that Inglesport had 3 copies of Northern Caves 2 on its shelf yesterday.

 

[slippery_matt]

its worth having a look around for the northern caves books - you might get lucky!

A couple of months back I got Northern caves 1 & 3 plus Caves of the peak district for £24 inc. postage from amazon marketplace!  well chuffed i was till i had to hand it over to the club 

 

[Skyrmy]

:-\ :-\ What ever happened to Rob???  :-\ :-\

We havent heard from him for a while!!

 

[rob_]

still here just not had much time lately.
did that one next to the lime kiln under ribblehead viaduct last but after ages of crawling it kinda petered off into nothing, must have got something wrong.

 

[kay]

still here just not had much time lately.
did that one next to the lime kiln under ribblehead viaduct last but after ages of crawling it kinda petered off into nothing, must have got something wrong.

At a guess, you either went into Wast Sink  above the scar at the viaduct end and couldn't find the way on, or you went into Roger Kirk above the scar at the right hand end and didn't spot the tube low on the LHS just before the passage peters out. I'd guess that you didn't go into the obvious entrance in the hillside since you'd be hard put not to find walking passage if you went in that way.