On my last day in the Yorkshire Dales at the end of June, I visited White Scar Caves. A couple of days prior, I had visited Ingleborough Caves, which is located not far away but is not quite as large as the 6km-long White Scar Caves, which is the longest show cave in Britain. It's certainly the longest show cave that I have been to (and remember, not including a couple of caves in the states that I visited as a child).
White Scar Caves was first explored in 1923, but it has continued to be explored over the years. The most recent exploration uncovered a very large chamber nicknamed "The Battlefield" because it contains many stones that have fallen from the ceiling thousands of years ago. It also includes another unique feature - patterns of mud that had dried, appearing almost like a mosaic; this mud is protected.
The cave includes many interesting features from waterfalls to rock formations (stalagmites and stalagtites), and rocks in unusual shapes and patterns. Many of these have names, such as the "Devil's Tongue", which is included in one of the photographs below.
Some of the cave was difficult to navigate with a couple of areas that required extended bending over to avoid hitting the rocks above. This was quite difficult as it was for quite awhile. There are other points where the rocks on both sides of the path create a "squeeze", but this wasn't problematic.
A long flight of stairs in the cave leads to a great chamber, "the battlefield". I believe that there were 90 stairs. While passing through the stairs, the group were shown fossils of ancient sea creatures as the land that makes up Britain was once in the equator hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Below is the "Devil's Tongue".
Below is the mud pattern.
Overall, this was a great show cave to visit, and you certainly do get your money's worth with a tour that takes between 60 and 80 minutes. However, there are a couple of areas with extended bending down and walking, and this wasn't particularly easy. So, this probably isn't the cave for you if you're very tall or have a hurt back/legs, are elderly, or are a bit out of shape. Visiting caves is one of the attractions that shorter people certainly have the advantage of.
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