The Land of the Lune - Drakkar Press

The River Wenning ...
The Wenning has the most dramatic birth of all the
Lune’s tributaries. It springs forth at Swine Tail
just below Ingleborough’s plateau, gathers a few
more becks to form Fell Beck, and then plunges headlong
into the awesome chasm of Gaping Gill, Britain’s most
famous pothole.
The waters fall 111m, making it Britain’s largest
unbroken waterfall, according to the Guinness Book of
Records. The hole was first descended (intentionally) in
1895 by the French caver, Edouard Martel. He mapped
the main chamber, which is large enough, it is often said,
for York Minster to be fitted in. However, the latest laser
technology has measured the chamber as 136m by 46m,
and therefore the nave and transepts of the minster (at
159m by 75m) would be seriously damaged by any such
attempt.
You can judge for yourself by taking the winch that
local potholing clubs fit up at bank holiday weekends.
It is often said that it is free to go down ... but there’s a
charge to come up. In fact, they insist that you pay at the
top, in case you should disappear forever underground.
No, I must be fair: they are most solicitous about our
well-being and careful to count us all down and count us
all up again.
It is certainly an unforgettable
experience, as you sink slowly in
the cage below the diminishing
skylight, past the green, then grey,
then black, walls of the cavern, in
the shower of Fell Beck (although
most of it has been kindly diverted
away). On the floor of the cavern,
the water largely percolates
away through the boulders and
it is possible to scramble around
searching into various crannies of
the chamber. After a while, nontroglodytes
would like to escape
– and then a problem becomes
clear: what goes down must come
up. On the surface, a numberedticket
queuing system enables you
to lounge around, having a picnic,
smiling as people return drenched
and blinking, as you wait your
turn. Below, there isn’t: you must
The River Wenning ... 155
stand in line. And if you waited 45 minutes in the sun on
top, you will have to wait 45 minutes in the cold, dark
Fell Beck shower below (or even longer, as potholers
tend to enter the cavern from elsewhere and lazily take
a ride out).
I see that there is now a leaflet advertising these
bank holiday treats and that the winch now operates for
a week. It’ll be a permanent tourist attraction soon, with
a snack bar and souvenir shop nearby, and umbrellas for
the queue below.
The geology of Gaping Gill is as we have come to
expect. Water streams off the gritstone on the eastern
slopes of Ingleborough and then disappears into the
limestone layer. Faulting has occurred at Gaping Gill to
enable such a large chasm to form. The Fell Beck water
then makes its way underground over the impermeable
slate and eventually emerges in Clapdale at the cave
spring of Beck Head to become Clapham Beck.
Potholers have found a difficult and dangerous way
through from Gaping Gill to Beck Head but over ground
we must make our way through the more appealing Trow
Two pages before: Austwick and Norber.
Below: Gaping Gill.
This is Chapter 10 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self