- Ireby Fell Cavern
Infobox Cave
name = Ireby Fell Cavern
photo = Ireby cave entrance.jpg
caption = Lookingnorth across entrance sink hole
location =Leck Fell ,North Yorkshire ,England
depth = convert|128|m|ft|0cite book
title=Selected Caves of Britain and Ireland
author=Des Marshal, Donald Rust
id = ISBN 1-871-89043-8
year=1997]
length = convert|4600|m|mi|1
coordinates = coord|54|11.440|N|2|30.118|W|type:cave
discovery = 1949
geology =Limestone
difficulty = Grade 4
number of entrances = 1
access = Free [cite web |url= http://www.cncc.org.uk/caving_access_three_counties_system.html#0|title= CNCC Website - Caving Access: Three Counties System|accessdate=2008-03-04 |format= |work= [] ]
survey = [http://www.rrcpc.org.uk/easegill/Surveys/LJ_Ireby.jpgsurvex plot]Ireby Fell Cavern is a cave system onLeck Fell ,North Yorkshire ,England .This popular cave starts with a pitch series that eventually opens out into a very large series of dry
sand y passages.The entrance is a vertical
concrete pipe at the bottom of ashakehole that was last shored up in 2006. [cite journal
author = Jack Pickup
year = 2006
month = April/May
title = Ireby's rumoured collapse
journal = Descent
issn = 0046-0036
issue = 189
pages = page 11 ] The traditional route is down three pitches ("Ding", "Dong", and "Bell"), but there is an alternative "Shadow" route which escapes most of the water flow in wet weather. After many metres of hands and knees crawling is "Well Pitch" which accesses the main lower sandy passages known as "Duke Street".At the far end of "Duke Street" is "Whirlpool chamber" where a short sump (not free-diveable) gave access to cave divers into further passages known as "Ireby II".
In early 2007, a system involving a primitive hand
pump [ [http://www.thursday-night-club.co.uk/2007/11/ireby-fell-cavern.html Thursday Night Club: 8th Nov 2007 - Ireby Fell Cavern ] ] and amud dam to temporarily retain thewater in anartificial lake in Duke Street has allowed non-divers to enter this part of the cave. [cite journal
author = Simon Wilson
year = 2007
month = April/May
title = Plumbing know-how breaks Ireby sump
journal = Descent
issn = 0046-0036
issue = 195
pages = page 13 ] There has also been extensivecave digging to find an alternative sump bypass.Although first explored in 1949, the entrance of this cave was blocked for ten years between 1953 and 1963. [cite web
url=http://www.pennine.demon.co.uk/NPC/1963/IREBYFC.HTM
title=Reopening the cavern - Ireby Fell
author= T. Reynolds
year=1963
publisher=Northern Pennine Club]Recent digging has forged a dry bypass to the sump via the aptly named Cripple Creek.
References
External links
* http://www.rrcpc.org.uk/easegill/text/Ireby.htm
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