Great Douk Cave in the Yorkshire Dales/Chapel-le-Dale

[WildMontyPythonMan]

As an absolute beginner, is this cave suitable.  Is it hard to find from Chapel-le-Dale?  Is the basic equipment all you need?  Am teaching myself map reading and compass skills for trip, what skills will be needed?  Thanks in advance. (What about rain and flooding?)

 

[Downer]

As an absolute beginner, is this cave suitable.  Is it hard to find from Chapel-le-Dale?  Is the basic equipment all you need?  Am teaching myself map reading and compass skills for trip, what skills will be needed?  Thanks in advance. (What about rain and flooding?)

As usual I would give fuddy-duddy nannyish advice, i.e. don't go caving alone and do let someone know where you are.

If this is the cave I think it is then it's ridiculously easy. My notes say it's an easy underground stroll, splashing about in a tiny river. It just gets lower and lower until you're crawling flat-out in the stream. You can turn round as soon as it gets too miserable. If anything I would say it's not a beginner's cave as it's just too easy and you don't get to experience any of the obstacles that make caving so interesting. Mind you, the crawl is a bit less fun in the spring when the river is melted snow at 0.000001 degrees. Don't know about flooding, but at least there are one or two holes to the surface en route to expedite an emergency exit. I hope this is the cave you mean or I'll have egg on my face again.

 

[Geoff R]

Done it once but did not find the exit !    Silly really.
 
Parking was easy - a nice footpath sign indicates the start of the walk up hill in a right hand direction.

A very easy pleasant beginners cave or for someone looking for a gentle trip under ground after a long drive to Yorkshire. A wet streamway walk all the way up (and back ?)

If you plan to exit the end, from memory its the far end left fork, low crawl in/by stream way, then left again up into roof, or just turn a round and walk back down the stream.  We crawled everywhere and some how missed it in the wet (severe weather warning) conditions.

 

 

[kay]

Don't go alone, tell someone where you're going and time you expect to make contact by to say you're out safely (allow time to track down mobile phone signal), and make sure you have spare lights/batteries with you. and spare clothing in the car. It's a popular first cave trip, but most people on their first cave go with a more experienced caver.

Use the 1:25000 OS map. Park in layby a bit higher up than Hill Inn. Obvious footpath next to small Water Board building, with an information board just inside gate. The path is one of the main route up Ingleborough so is quite obvious. After second wall there is a cross-roads of paths - I think there's even a signpost, though I've no idea what it says. Take the left, a clear path running between banks. After about 300yds you come to a huge shakehole with trees. Go over the wall at the obvious stile and follow the path to the bottom.

At the bottom you'll see a bit of scaffolding and a dig - ignore this. Great Douk Cave is where the waterfall comes out at the head of the shakehole. Just clamber up the waterfall and explore.

Main passage is obvious, just behind the entrance to the left is a less obvious branching passage which is interesting to explore. Main passage is fun, eventually lowering to a crawl in water - quite a way along here is a hole in the roof which pops you into another series of small passages - bear left whenever possible and you emerge from Middle Washfold Cave. Or just turn round and go back the way you came in.

Search on 'Great Douk' on this forum - there was a lot of discussion on route finding when another person used it a their first cave a few months ago. And if you enjoy it, the Yorkshire bit of the forum has info on other suitable caves.

 

[dunc]

I would class it as a beginners cave - it was one of my very early caving trips, about my 4th cave?
Went as far as the crawl and turned round as didn't want to get too wet! Wore general clothing with old-waterproofs, a pair of wellies and a head-torch..
Good fun.

Be wary if it has been or is raining and perhaps seek advice. It can carry a fair stream, I remember once someone saying they got in to trouble due to a flash-flood..

 

[Geoff R]

We crawled everywhere and some how missed it (the top exit) in the wet, severe weather warning, conditions.

Yep, can confirm that in wet weather its occasionally over your welly's and recommend a change of clothes at the car. We entered the system using the right hand dry crawl (climb up to mouth using obvious track from outside streamway) and the stream way had a goodly flow.

Take the advise above, and choose to go after a period of dry weather.

 

[cap n chris]

There are contributors to this forum who would urge you to go and work things out for yourself from first principles on the grounds that either you live to tell the tale and become a "hard caver" by luck/destiny etc. or you die and the remaining gene pool becomes stronger as a result.

I'm not that type of contributor.

 

[WildMontyPythonMan]

Uploaded to Image Shack a map. Used Ordnance Survey "Explore" site.  It shows Chapel-le-Dale.  Could I ask a favour, Kay and to the others who have given directions, just to open the image attached in MS Paint and mark on the start place of the directions they have given.  (So Kay, would you mark the inn you mentioned, if the map is too large, and the inn is in Chapel-le-Dale, then just say so.  I'm unsure what town or village the inn is in. 

 

[langcliffe]

The map also shows a public house with the path to Great Douk taking off a bit higher, so it's already all there.

 

[danthecavingman]

A fine trip without any real difficulties. The easiest option is to go in at Middle Washfold Sinks and come out at Great Douk Cave.

From the Hill Inn follow the main path as described previously but keep going heading towards Ingleborough. Shortly after you pass the huge shakehole at Braithwaite Wife the path goes over a wall at two stiles. Here - http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=54.179875&lon=-2.395368&z=17.3&r=0&src=ggl

Turn left here and follow the little path until you cross another wall via a little stile - here - http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=54.181765&lon=-2.390149&z=17.3&r=0&src=ggl

You are heading for here - http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=54.183295&lon=-2.388479&z=17.3&r=0&src=ggl

There is an obvious entrance. Follow your nose - basically dry crawling drops down through a hole into a bedding. Keep following your nose, you will pick up a stream. Follow downstream through the bedding crawls until after a while you get to a point where it starts getting bigger. Just keep going downstream, you will shortly be in a really nice bit of stream passage. After a bit you pass under the daylight shaft of Little Douk Pot and eventually you emerge in the shakehole at Greak Douk Cave here - http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=54.188258&lon=-2.389095&z=17.3&r=0&src=ggl

Cross the shakehole to the far side and out.

Hope this helps.

Dan.

 

[Rachel]

Uploaded to Image Shack a map. Used Ordnance Survey "Explore" site.  It shows Chapel-le-Dale.  Could I ask a favour, Kay and to the others who have given directions, just to open the image attached in MS Paint and mark on the start place of the directions they have given.  (So Kay, would you mark the inn you mentioned, if the map is too large, and the inn is in Chapel-le-Dale, then just say so.  I'm unsure what town or village the inn is in. 

The Hill Inn is off the edge of the map you showed in your post. Chapel le Dale is the valley that runs from Ingleton to Ribblehead and the Hill Inn is more or less halfway, on its own in the middle of nowhere. The easiest way to find it is to start in Ingleton and follow the tourist signs to White Scar Cave, just keep on driving past White Scar Cave and the pub is another 10 mins further on, on your right.

 

[cap n chris]

just keep on driving past White Scar Cave and the pub is another 10 mins further on, on your right.

Jeez, Rachel, you drive exceptionally slowly.

 

[langcliffe]

The Hill Inn is off the edge of the map you showed in your post.

Why, in that case, is there a "PH" marked on the map in the position of the Hill Inn?

 

[dunc]

Indeed, the Hill Inn is definitely on the map.. Great Douk Cave is just about on the map..

And 10mins to drive 2.5miles from White Scar to the Hill Inn??

 

[Rachel]

How come nobody has assumed I run fast rather than drive slowly? I'm sure you haven't all met me 

Maybe I should get new glasses before I look at a map again  :-[

 

[kay]

Uploaded to Image Shack a map. Used Ordnance Survey "Explore" site.  It shows Chapel-le-Dale.  Could I ask a favour, Kay and to the others who have given directions, just to open the image attached in MS Paint and mark on the start place of the directions they have given.  (So Kay, would you mark the inn you mentioned, if the map is too large, and the inn is in Chapel-le-Dale, then just say so.  I'm unsure what town or village the inn is in. 

Too techie for me.
Start at the bottom LH corner of the map, go R about 3/4inch, up a similar amount and you'll see a 'PH' for public house - that's the Hill Inn. There's a red dotted line footpath leading down the page just below that, and it then does a sharp bend to the R. At the end of that, almost on the bottom of the map, is the words 'Great Douk Cave'.

I agree with the comment that it's easier to go through the cave from Middle Washfold to Great Douk, but I don't reckon the Middle Washfold entrance is particularly easy to find, especially for a novice who may be expecting a cave to look like an obvious hole in a cliff, rather than a slit in a horizontal limestone pavement.

 

[WildMontyPythonMan]

Thanks for the advice.  Especially Kay.  (The techie part is just a place to upload photos, so you can put them on forums like this).  As preparation (just to downer really), I'm practising my map and compass skills first, including following paths from the map when faced with two or three in the same spot.  Then I'm going to read "The Complete Caving Manual" by Sparrow (http://www.inglesport.com/shop/catalog.php?page=2&category=Caving%20Books) .  According to this site Greak Douk is a I out of V , and is suitable for children children tend be a bit more compulsive than adults so I should be OK.  http://ukcaving.com/wiki/index.php/The_Three_Peaks

You could say I will be learning on the job, but you always do on your first caving/fishing/scuba trip don't you?  I will be aware of the risks from the book.

To the inviter in the post above this : Thanks, but the trip will probably happen before I've read my book and bought my suits. 

If you ask me this is a lot of preparation.  Considering you can go on the roads after a just a weekend motorcycling, if you hold a full license. 

I will inform the pub landlord where I am and when I expect to return, so he can come and get me with his yellow chopper.

 

[derekpotter]

Thanks for the advice.  Especially Kay.  (The techie part is just a place to upload photos, so you can put them on forums like this).  As preparation (just to downer really), I'm practising my map and compass skills first, including following paths from the map when faced with two or three in the same spot.  Then I'm going to read "The Complete Caving Manual" by Sparrow (http://www.inglesport.com/shop/catalog.php?page=2&category=Caving%20Books) .  According to this site Greak Douk is a I out of V , and is suitable for children children tend be a bit more compulsive than adults so I should be OK.   http://ukcaving.com/wiki/index.php/The_Three_Peaks
You could say I will be learning on the job, but you always do on your first caving/fishing/scuba trip don't you?  I will be aware of the risks from the book.
To the inviter in the post above this : Thanks, but the trip will probably happen before I've read my book and bought my suits. 
If you ask me this is a lot of preparation.  Considering you can go on the roads after a just a weekend motorcycling, if you hold a full license. 
I will inform the pub landlord where I am and when I expect to return, so he can come and get me with his yellow chopper.

Preparation? What preparation? I wouldn't call map reading "preparation" for caving, though it probably would help if you can find the entrance deliberately rather than falling down Middle Washfold (which must be the hole in the roof that I vaguely remember) by accident while walking.

I don't think you can really prepare for Great Douk as it's just an easy wade in the stream and maybe a bit of scrambling about. Andy Sparrow's book will be an interesting read but it won't be relevant either - unless there's a chapter on "how to walk underground without tripping over" complete with exercises you can do on piles of rocks on the surface...

No, I don't think there's a lot of preparation really!

Enjoy the trip.

 

[Peter Burgess]

How about "check your lamp isn't going to run out 3 minutes into the trip" ?

 

[derekpotter]

How about "check your lamp isn't going to run out 3 minutes into the trip" ?

Can you say "spare light"?  It's more important to check that you haven't bought two left wellies.