Swinsto Hole

The first mention of the cave is by Balderstone in Ingleton Bygone and Present, published in 1890, where he accurately describes how it is possible to traverse the cave for 33 yards before encountering "a deep wide hole, with high vaulted roof, fine cone-like stalactites, and waterfall thirty feet high". In 1908 a party from the Yorkshire Ramblers Club descended the pitch and explored the way on for about 90 m before turning back when the route ahead became low and wet. The baton was not picked up for over 20 years, but in 1930 a party from the Gritstone Club finally reached the bottom after a long siege lasting a year and many trips, the key to their success being the lowering of water…

The entrance is in a shakehole, and enters a small active stream passage. This soon enlarges to walking size before reaching a 6 m pitch with water entering from one side. Below a 234 m long passage (The Long Crawl) which has some flat-out wet sections, leads to a short second pitch. Below this a succession of three pitches rapidly descends to a spray-lashed chamber. A little beyond here the 143 m long Turbary Inlet enters from the right. At the end of this an excavated rift leads up into McShea Chamber in Turbary Pot, an alternative entrance. The main passage continues, descending a number of cascades and a further two small pitches, before entering a larger area where the water from…