Whitewell Pot, Whitewell Cave, & Hell Hole

For the first trip of 2012, me (Dan), Fay, Bob, Paul W, and Nick were off to the Forest of Bowland to investigate the various holes in the ground around Whitewell. I had never been Whitewell Pot, or the others, and at the clubhouse the Thursday before there had been a few mutters of derision upon finding out the trip was to Whitewell Pot. However, seeing as it is only 10 minutes away from my house I was enthusiastic about it, and was looking forward to the trip!

We met at the top of the hill in between Cow Ark and Whitewell and dutifully parked in the layby prescribed in the permit, where the views are absolutely magnificent. After quickly getting all my gear on in the -1 degree cold, I realised my first error of the day - NO SRT KIT!  I'd remembered the rope, but unfortunately I had nothing to go down them on...

Top of the hill, amazing views over Forest of Bowland

Thankfully Fay was my saviour, she had brought a 20ft ladder, we thought I might have a bit of a problem getting down Hell Hole, but Whitewell Pot would be fine. We set off down the road and made our way over a gate on the right of the road and trudged across a boggy field towards a copse where Fay and Bob (having been before) said we would find Hell Hole.

Hell Hole is in a large sink, surrounded by a small wood, very picturesque. The first pitch (14m) looks quite promising upon first viewing, it is large and open and lets in sunlight. Fay put a belay on a tree at the top of the pitch for the ladder for me, and a rope for everyone else. I made my way down to a ledge halfway down on the ladder with a lifeline, but the ladder wouldn't reach all the way so Fay lowered the ladder to me, I tied a knot in the rope, attached the ladder to the knot, and made my way to the bottom.

Fay going of the tree at the top of the first pitch of Hell Hole

Everyone then made their way down to the bottom where we found the next pitch covered in a rusty iron barrel cover. The pitch itself was a tube made of rusty iron barrels. It wasn't completely vertical and definitely free-climbable but we stuck the ladders on anyway just in case. After a short-ish climb down of about 10m, you get to a very tight hole in the floor which is a few meter drop to a small chamber. Then there is another small pitch of 5 or 6 meters, which again is climbable, and you are at the bottom! Nothing to see at the bottom really, apart from a very tight crack which I could have possibly got through, but not knowing if I would be able to turn round once through, I left it and climbed back up.

Me at the last pitch in Hell Hole

After Nick saying "is that  it", we made our way back out, which was largely uneventful apart from Nick getting stuck in the tight hole for a while when climbing back out, but once he took his gear off he just about made it. On the ascent of the last pitch, everyone made there way back up on the rope, and to save time I asked Paul to chuck down his SRT gear. I was last, then halfway up I realised error number 2, I glanced back down and saw I had left Paul's descender on the floor! Luckily Nick was on hand to lob his descender to me, so I promptly slid back down, retrieved the descender, and scurried my way back up the rock face on the rope.

As it was on the way down to Whitewell Pot, we next made our way down the valley to Whitewell Cave. Nothing of interest really, absolutely chock full of boulders, and at the bottom a narrow squeeze which I had a half arsed attempt at, but not knowing where it was going I chickened out as I didn't know if I could turn round and get back out. When I got home I had a look at a couple of descriptions of the cave, and it seems the hole I couldn't be bothered with actually carries on to a few more passageways and chambers. If I would have know this I would have gone through the small squeeze, but as it is, we can go back some other time and have another look.

Entrance to Whitewell Cave

After Whitewell Cave we set off down the road to Whitewell Pot. The entrance is (quite oddly) a big plastic tube covered in shoe mat material with a steel gate on that you need a spanner to open! Luckily Fay had hers with her and and after undoing 8 fiddly little nuts, we climbed down the tube, which someone had quite kindly fixed steel poles in for a ladder.

Fay and Bob undoing the gate on the entrance to Whitewell Pot

After getting to the bottom of the tube, and a bit of a squeeze through a couple of small gaps, you get to the top of the first pitch. There is a handy wedged-in concrete post at the top of this which Bob belayed the ladder off, then made his way down to the first chamber. The next 'pitch' isn't really a pitch, it is an 80ft series of climbs, which although almost constantly vertical, is quite easily climbable. The reason for this is that, unlike in the Dales where the majority of caves are nice and smooth, the limestone has formed extremely rough and sharp, with lots of sharp little handholds and good sized ledges. I really enjoyed this climb, both on the way in and on the way out, and on it's own it made the trip worth while.

Whitewell Pot survey

At the bottom of the climb, you get to a chamber with a crawl off in the corner. This crawl is quite tight, but not very long, with a squeeze under a very low arch at the end which leads on to the rest of the system. Nick and Paul started the crawl but Paul didn't like the look of it halfway down as he said he was feeling like he was going to get stuck, so me Fay and Bob carried on to the next part of the cave. Nothing much else of real not down here, apart from a model head someone has made out of mud, so after 20 minutes of snooping / crawling around in the numerous muddy passages we made our way back out, up the climb and met Nick and Paul up top.

Overall an enjoyable days caving, it was nice to see all the caves in the area mainly because they are local to us, but the nice dark, rough limestone, and enjoyable free climbing in Whitewell Pot made it a worthy day out.