Weathercote Cave
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| Weathercote Cave | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Location of Weathercote Cave in the Yorkshire Dales | |
| Location | Chapel-le-Dale, North Yorkshire, [UK] |
| OS grid | SD 7393 7756 |
| Coordinates | 54°11′36″N 2°24′04″W / 54.193239°N 2.401085°W[1] |
| Depth | 33 metres (108 ft)[1] |
| Length | 762 metres (2,500 ft)[1] |
| Elevation | 262 metres (860 ft)[1] |
| Geology | Carboniferous limestone |
| Entrances | 1 |
| Difficulty | III[1] |
| Hazards | water, loose boulders, verticality[1] |
| Access | By prior arrangement[2] |
Weathercote Cave is a natural solutional cave in Chapel-le-Dale, North Yorkshire, England. It has been renowned as a natural curiosity since the eighteenth century, and was accessible to paying visitors until 1971. The entrance is a large shaft about 20 metres (66 ft) deep, dominated by a waterfall entering at one end. It lies within the designated Ingleborough Site of Special Scientific Interest.[3]
The entrance lies in the floor of the Chapel-le-Dale valley below the Hill Inn, and is enclosed by a substantial wall. A path leads from a doorway in the wall to the open shaft, some 61 metres (200 ft) long and up to 15 metres (49 ft) wide. The underground Winterscales Beck emerges from a passage at the north end, and falls some 20 metres (66 ft) down the shaft. The top of the waterfall is overhung by a massive wedged boulder known as Mohammed's Coffin. The name is an allusion to the legend that through the use of magnets or lodestones, Mohammed's coffin was suspended in mid-air in his tomb in Mecca.[4][5]
At the near end of the shaft, a flight of 51 steps descends beneath a natural rock arch, to the bottom, where a number of short passage all lead to sumps, the main one of which has been connected to Jingle Pot, another daylight shaft located 140 metres (460 ft) down the valley, and thence to Hurtle Pot, a further 200 metres (660 ft) down the valley. The total length of explored passages in the combined system is 2,370 metres (7,780 ft), and the total depth is 64 metres (210 ft). The water can be followed upstream of the waterfall through a series of low aqueous passages and small chambers. When the beck is in full spate, the shaft can fill to the top, and overflow down the valley.[1][6][7]
Geology and hydrology
Weathercote Cave is a solutional cave formed in Visean Great Scar limestone from the Mississippian Series of the Carboniferous period, and is part of the underground watercourse of Winterscales Beck. Winterscales Beck sinks at Haws Gill Wheel, about 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) upstream of Weathercote Cave, and flows through a shallow and largely flooded cave system.[8][9] When the river reached a major cross joint at Weathercote, it descended to base level. The roof has since collapsed to form the surface shaft. The underground stream flows through the base of two other surface shafts, Jingle Pot and Hurtle Pot, before resurging at God's Bridge, 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) down the valley.[6] The connection between two of the caves was confirmed in 1770, when a bonnet lost by a woman in Weathercote Cave was later retrieved from Hurtle Pot.[10]