Three Counties System

Most of the individual systems that make up the Three Counties System had been explored to a greater or lesser extent a long time before the possibility of an extended system was mooted. Thus Lost Johns' Cave was explored by the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club in the 1920s, Ease Gill Caverns by a number of caving clubs from the time of the original discovery of Lancaster Hole in 1946, and Ireby Fell Cavern in 1949. The existence for the Three Counties System was first mooted by Dave Brook in 1968, when he proposed that the many fragmented systems stretching from Barbondale in the north to Kingsdale in the south could be part of a much larger system. Over the next 43 years, many discoveries by many…

The Three Counties System's most southerly entrance is currently North by North End Pot (, NGR SD 6830 7654) on the northerly flank of Kingsdale in North Yorkshire, and the most northerly entrance is currently Bull Pot of the Witches (, NGR SD 6623 8131) beneath Barbon Low Fell in Cumbria – a distance of over 5.2 km. Between the two, the system passes beneath Leck Fell which is in Lancashire. The system runs mainly north–south, its western extent being limited by the Craven Fault which truncates the limestone exposure, and the eastern extent where the limestones are conformable overlain by younger rocks. Streams flow from the higher topography from the east and sink into swallet holes at…