Some northern caving updates for you…

New training workshop dates

We are delighted to announce that tonight we have published our Spring-Summer 2023 calendar of training workshops, which is our most comprehensive program yet!

• 11th March: Two-day SRT workshop, beginner level
• 18th March: One-day SRT refresher, intermediate level (underground)
• 8th April: One-day SRT refresher, intermediate level (underground)
• 22nd April: One-day SRT rigging, intermediate level (underground)
• 23rd April: One-day skills for SRT trip leaders (underground)
• 29th April: One-day SRT rigging, beginner level (indoors)
• 6th May: One-day SRT rescue workshop, intermediate level (indoors)
• 7th May: One-day SRT rescue workshop, advanced level (indoors)
• 20th May: One-day underground geology tour with Dr John Helm
• 20th May: Two-day SRT refresher, intermediate level
• 3rd June: Two-day SRT workshop, beginner level
• 10th June: Two-day SRT workshop, advanced level
• 1st July: One-day SRT, intermediate level (underground)
• 2nd July: One-day SRT rigging, intermediate level (underground)
• 22nd July: One-day ladder and lifelines for trip leaders (underground)
• 23rd July: One-day skills for horizontal cave trip leaders (underground)
• 23rd July: One-day pull-through caving skills (underground)
• 19th August: One-day skills for SRT caving trip leaders (underground)

Note: All two-day workshops include one day indoors and one day underground.
The beginner workshops also work well for those who are quite rusty or would like a refresher to help regain confidence following a period of absence. There will often be the opportunity to customise the learning to those of differing existing abilities.

For more information and/or to sign up to any of the sessions click HERE.
As one of our mailing list subscribers, you are receiving advanced notice of these workshops. We know that spaces on some of these workshops will go quickly once they are more widely announced via other forms of social media tomorrow evening.

Cave-specific updates
Birkwith area: Nothing too much to update you on, other than a reminder about the current situation at High Birkwith which is summarised in THIS STATEMENT. We are aware that parking at Low Birkwith Farm is still fine and the owner there is very friendly. We are also aware that the owner at High Birkwith is not challenging anyone visiting Calf Holes, but is actively challenging anyone deviating from the path to visit Old Ing, Birkwith or Dismal Hill Caves, so consent to visit these caves is unlikely to be granted and is being actively policed by the owner. The CNCC has plans to try to reach a compromise on this over the coming year, but this is rather an uphill battle.
Wretched Rabbit: We promise we haven’t forgotten about this, following the collapses two years ago (click HERE). Work will resume this year, lead by RRCPC volunteers, and plenty of CNCC-funded materials are now in place. Until then we continue to advise not to use the Wretched Rabbit entrance to Easegill. County Pot is an excellent alternative, but if the more complex navigation is putting you off, why not try out some of our route-descriptions?

Alum Pot: A reminder to be aware around Alum Pot of a number of dead trees due to Ash Dieback. Avoid rigging from them and watch out for falling or fallen branches. We are looking into remedial options.
Bull Pot of the Witches: The former Direct Route in Bull Pot of the Witches is no longer possible following work to remove the dead tree previously used for rigging. Groups must now take another route.

Lancaster Hole: We are pleased to say that the team have completed work to restore the entrance, following the collapse of a large amount of material from behind the entrance pipe (full original article HERE). We hope to publish a more thorough report of this work in due course, but for now there are some nice snaps of the work on this UK Caving thread. Anyone visiting is advised to watch out for any settling/movement, or any loose material down the shaft, but hopefully, this work should prevent further collapse and will stabilise the entrance for many years to come. Great effort by the team involved from Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club.

Conservation
It’s been a quiet winter for CNCC-organised conservation initiatives, however, a few keen folks have been doing their bit, restoring the tape in Shuttleworth Pot (click HERE) and clearing lots of rubbish from the stream above Hull Pot (click HERE). Great work! You can report any issues you encounter HERE, whether it be surface (damaged stiles or fences, unsafe entrances, rubbish in shakeholes) or underground issues. The CNCC can support you to undertake works yourself, or recruit volunteers from our large pool to take the project on wherever possible.

Cave rigging topos
Over the past several months, our anchor installers have been busy making some changes to the anchors in several popular pots, to address known deficiencies and replace defective anchors. Sites include Notts Pot (entrance pitch and Left-Hand route), Hurnel Moss Pot, FOUL Pot, and work is planned at Simpson’s Pot and Swinsto Hole. The rigging topos will be updated with any changes, so we would like to remind you to always download the most recent version every time.
We welcome anyone to report any topo inaccuracies or defective anchors HERE.

New-to-caving events
On 12th February, our first New to Caving event ran in collaboration with Craven Pothole Club as the host. It seems to have been extremely well attended by lots of enthusiastic newbies. You can read a short report HERE.
With our first event now successfully ‘in the bag’, we would love to know if your club/group would like to host another event.

The CNCC will advertise your session, pitching at those considering caving as a hobby, rather than those wanting a one-off experience-day. We can use our online system to manage signups and collect any payment. This first session was free-of-charge, however, if the host would like to use the session to raise funds for good caving causes or to cover reasonable organising costs or gear hire, we can collect this on your behalf as part of signup. Close to the event, we will hand over so the host can get in touch with attendees and communicate the logistics.
If you would like to host a session, please get in touch with This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss.

AGM 2023 at Clapham Village Hall
Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 11th March, 10am at Clapham Village Hall. Full details can be found HERE.

The agenda has now been published and is on our meetings page, where Officer reports will also be published in the week ahead. Just turn up on the day, or to join online email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details. Anyone is welcome even if you're just curious to see what goes on. We should be done by lunch time and will hopefully be a nice social occasion as well as a good chance to see what goes on behind the scenes, and to tell our incoming Committee and Officers what more we could be doing this year to support northern caving.

Caving photos at National Park Headquarters
You may remember back in August we were able to get a display of northern caving photos onto the wall of the Yorkshire Dales National Park HQ office at Bainbridge (full story HERE). We have had so much positive feedback, and they have had a much longer run than most. The display is soon ending, so in early March Tim Allen (who led this initiative) will be taking these down and handing them over to CNCC, where we hope to repurpose or sell them to recover some costs. We hope to have them on display at the Northern Explorers’ Forum…

Northern Explorers’ Forum
The Northern Explorers’ Forum, first run in 2019 but then stalled due to the pandemic, is returning for 2023, 26th March at Clapham Village Hall. This is a get-together of anyone involved or interested in new exploration and digging in our region.

The speaker line-up is currently being finalised and tickets will go on sale soon. We expect that they will sell out quickly based on the popularity of the event in 2019! Watch HERE for more details and ticket sales, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

Please Note : The links in this post do not work because it is a copy and paste I my brain is incompatible with technology. If you want a specific link, please tell me and I will post it in a seperate reply.

Ian