Robinson's Pot

This system below Darnbrook Fell has a most unusual entrance. A manhole outside the kitchen window of a farm opens onto a 7 metre shaft into a series of fossil passages first entered by miners. After a series of convoluted crawls interspersed by some loft chambers the Darnbrook Fell Master Cave is intercepted. This can be followed up and downstream for some distance. Sumps terminate the cave in both directions and these have both been dived. Exploration continues sporadically. Access to the cave is by permission and is granted for only a few trips every year. The trip I went on was primarily to support a dive by Dave Ryall in the upstream sump.

	Interesting mud formations
In the master cave

Cherry Tree Hole

This is part of the same system as Robinson's Pot but is upstream from it. The entrance has a reputation as being hard to find as the shakehole has sheer sides. The photos were taken on a trip after a Cave Diving Group dinner which probably explains why the party managed to go round in a complete circle at one point!

	Martyn Farr looking unhappy	Martyn Farr in the downstream sump

Kingsdale Master Cave

This was one of the first big caves in Yorkshire I ever visited back in 1968. The cave is a master cave, draining the fell on the west side of Kingsdale and can be entered from above through several potholes one of the most popular being Swinsto Pot. The master cave was discovered by members of Leeds University Speleological Society in 1967 by squeezing along a narrow crawl from the bottom of Swinsto Pot. The Valley Entrance was located from within along a fossil passage from the end of the Master Cave. It was excavated not long after the master cave's discovery and allows cavers to descend the potholes on the fell above and emerge by the road in Kingsdale. The master cave ends in a long sump, the water resurging at Keld Head, and this has been successfully traversed by cave divers - at the time the connection was made it was one of the longest cave dives in the world. Exploration still continues in the flooded network of passages behind Keld Head.

Illusion Pot

This is another cave discovered from within. The water drains East Kingsdale and the system was entered through Dale Barn Cave by divers. A dry entrance on the side of East Kingsdale was excavated some years later and gives access to large, and, in some places beautifully decorated. passages.

Martin Grass admires straws
Sally Glanvill and a beautiful banded curtain

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