The Yorkshire Hills - Jubilee Cave

Victoria Cave is certainly the most famous of the Yorkshire caves above Settle, but it is not the only one up there.  My OS map showed a half dozen along the five miles I walked that day, and from reading other sources I have learned of others that have been explored and excavated for evidence of early times.

Here's a substantial cave just past Victoria.  I can't find reference to any archaeology finds but it has the look of a place that has been cleared, presumably for that purpose.  One reference I found named it "Wet Cave".  Quite apt, it had in it a small stream running through tenacious cave mud.  My hiking boots still have a thin coating of this two weeks after my return to the States.

Other than a couple of rock climbers at Victoria Cave, and the hale oldster I mentioned the other day, I had the high country to myself.  Unless you count this inhabitant of a cave entrance.

In the same area as Victoria Cave is Jubilee Cave.  I understand that it was excavated at the same time as the more famous cave, evidently by the Pig Yard Club I mentioned on Wednesday.  There were said to be Romano-British and neolithic finds but if there is a detailed report it has eluded me.

The cave has three entrances that link together in a series of small rooms and rubble strewn passages.  A sign indicates that the roof is not stable and I did not venture all the way back.

I never like to see modern artifacts - aka trash - in sites like this.  But I was intrigued by this.  It was a nice reminder of the discovery of Victoria Cave by a wandering hound.  Did some walker bring a tennis ball up the hill and toss it into this cave in conscious homage?

It was a pleasant thought with which to finish my morning.  As I sat outside Jubilee Cave eating my lunch I looked across a few yards at a pile of rock that also seemed to have three entrances.  It was almost like a miniature version of Jubilee.

And if you look very, very closely.....

I was sitting quietly enough that three little bunnies emerged, each from a different little cave entrance.  Surely this would be more than enough to send an enthusiastic dog down a dark hole in pursuit!  Maybe this is why the tennis ball was ignored.

There are lots of caves in Yorkshire and a very dedicated community of caver-historians who explore them.  I suspect there is a lot left to be discovered.