Skirwith Cave
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| Skirwith Cave | |
|---|---|
 Remnants of a stairway in Skirwith Cave | |
  Showing location of Skirwith Cave in the Yorkshire Dales | |
| Location | Ingleborough, North Yorkshire, [UK] |
| OS grid | SD 7095 7378 |
| Coordinates | 54°09′32″N 2°26′47″W / 54.158807°N 2.446307°W[1] |
| Length | 1,000 metres (3,300 ft)[1] |
| Elevation | 275 metres (902 ft)[1] |
| Discovery | 1934[1] |
| Geology | Carboniferous limestone |
| Entrances | 1 |
| Difficulty | III[1] |
| Hazards | water, loose boulders[1] |
| Access | Permit [2] |
| Cave survey | 1980 NCC line survey on Cavemaps |
Skirwith Cave is a major resurgence solutional cave on Ingleborough in Chapel-le-Dale, North Yorkshire, England; it was a show cave between 1964 and 1974. It is no longer open to the public but is still visited by cavers. It lies within the designated Ingleborough Site of Special Scientific Interest.[3]
The current entrance is through an opening in a small shakehole. This drops into a well-decorated rift passage, which was part of the former show cave. A levelled floor reaches a boulder choke which once had a flight of steps leading over it; this is now covered by a boulder collapse. The show cave terminated at a five-metre (16 ft) waterfall. Above this, a long, mainly low, wet passage reaches a sump after several hundred metres. This is the first of three short sumps separated by short sections of passage. The fourth sump has been dived for 24 metres (79 ft) to an underwater boulder choke. The cave has no inlet passages in its 1,000-metre (3,300 ft) length.[1]
