Lost Caverns of Grassington Moor

Location
Grid Reference: |West%20Turf%20Pits;54.10480;-1.960340|Whim;54.104767;-1.959169&scale=17&centre=54.104248;-1.959634 SE 02790 67542.

Altitude: 420 m

Access


Grassington Moor is registered common land with no known owner. It is in the guardianship of the Grassington Moor Management Association which is made up of representatives from the sporting interest, graziers, parish and district councils and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. It is a Scheduled Monument (National Monument 31331), and digging is not permitted. It is open access land as defined by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, but the National Park Authority has specific responsibility to protect the area from "unlawful interference".

Description
The Lost Caverns were discovered at a depth of about 70 m by miners from a level driven at a depth of 40 fathoms in Old Turf Pits on Grassington Moor. A survey made at the time indicates that the Lost Caverns is a well-decorated phreatic cave, with three main passages. An east-west passage of about 170 m and about 10 m high meets two other passages at its western end. West Cavern heads off to the north-west for about 50 m, and East Cavern heads off towards the north with about 150 m of passage. There are are various small side-passages and oxbows.

The miners entered the caves upwards through the floor, and a rise was also driven upwards towards a vein from the cavern. This may have connected with a shaft driven down towards the same vein from the surface. It is also reported that a level driven south from West Turf Pits went through a fragment of natural passage some 45 north of the northern end of the main passage.

History
The caverns were discovered by miners working in Old Turf Pits in 1830. Work in the area had stopped by about 1870, and the shafts were allowed to fall into disrepair.

In 1962 the NMRS looked at the three shafts in the area looking for a possible entrance, but found none were accessible. They did, however, explore a small shaft to a depth of 18 m, which led to a blocked passage. This was probably a climbing shaft, or manway, down to the main levels of either West Turf Pits or Old Turf Pits. BPC surveyed this in 1995, referring to it as Manway Shaft.