Picture this: you’re strapped into a sturdy chair hovering above an open shaft which leads down into the UK’s biggest cave. At the press of a button you begin zooming down the narrow slot directly through the UK’s tallest waterfall and into the otherworldly cavern that is Gaping Gill. For two weeks a year, an experience ordinarily reserved for skilled cavers, is open to anyone. All you need to do is sit in the chair and enjoy the ride.

It takes around a minute to descend the 103m (340ft) to the bottom of the waterfall and it may just be the most exciting minute of your whole year! The Yorkshire Dales are well known for their caves, but there are none that compare to the majesty of Gaping Gill.

Here’s everything you need to know about winching down into Gaping Gill.

The Gaping Gill winch experience

Before you get winched - the walk

I’m going to start with what the experience on the day was like and then go into all the details about planning your day and how to make sure you get tickets etc.

There is no road access for Gaping Gill, so everyone’s day will start with the 2.6 mile (4.3km) walk to the mouth of Gaping Gill.

This walk is along the Ingleborough Estate Trail, which is a private track that costs £2.50 per person. Well, technically there is a public footpath route too, but it’s longer.

We’ll go into more details on the walk later in the guide, but it’s a good gravel path for roughly half the distance and then there are intermittent stony sections, with one notably rubbly section. Much of the way to Gaping Gill is a gradual uphill walk, there are a couple of tiny steep bits, but it’s generally gentle.

Arriving at Gaping Gill

You will see all the tents and winching machinery etc and will begin queueing along the fence just above the winch tents. A volunteer will come along and tell you roughly how long your wait will be based on your number in the queue - the wait times will likely now be short due to the new booking system.

The winch takes around one minute each way, so each person equates to a three minute wait (roughly, it is usually a bit less) although this time can be affected by weather etc.

Just before it’s your turn you will collect your helmet and make your way down a few steps to the winch platform. You’ll be given a quick briefing and then get strapped in.

It takes roughly a minute to get down to the bottom of the cavern, where you will be met by a volunteer who gives you a laminated sheet with some details about the cave.

What to expect on the winch itself

I was expecting the winch to be fun, but it was so much more exciting than I could have imagined. The beginning is actually quite fast and then it gets a bit slower as you enter the main chamber - or it felt slower anyway!

For the first bit you are descending a narrow shaft and you feel incredibly close to the walls - close enough that you feel your legs draw in subconsciously!

You can see every bit of moss and bracken attached to those dripping walls! It was exhilarating. As you descend you will get wet, as at one point you zoom through the waterfall - they try not to get you soaked, but you’ll definitely be damp and if water levels are high, you will be much wetter.

As long as you have warm clothes, this all adds to the sense of adventure.

You’ll then come out into the huge open chamber and have what felt like split seconds to take it all in before you reach the bottom. I honestly didn’t want it to end. It would have been worth the entry fee for the winch alone! Beats any theme park ride in my opinion : )

If you are worried about it, think of the winch as a sturdy metal chair, it’s perfectly comfy and you can sit normally. If you have a small bag you can put it on your lap, if it’s slightly bigger like our camera bag was, the volunteers kindly allow you to strap it to the bottom of the chair - it felt a bit dodgy to have all our camera gear dangly 103m above the largest cave in Britain, but they did a sterling job securing it.

If you have a bigger pack then you can leave it in the bag tent near the place where you pay your entry fee - it’s not so much a tent as a big bit of tarp which covers the bags.

Inside Gaping Gill

Once you’re inside the cave, after a quick briefing from a volunteer, you’re free to wander. The cavern is huge, with three separate waterfalls cascading into it. One is slender, but the other two were pumping on our visit, it was absolutely magnificent.

The cave has a fair bit of lighting, so despite the fact we forgot our head torches (don’t judge us, we got up at 4am and drove over from the Lake District for this experience!) we could see pretty well.

I occasionally used the light on my phone, but for the most part I didn’t need it. Having said that, I would recommend bringing a torch with you to illuminate darker parts of the cave better.

The terrain inside the cave is generally stony, with a few mounds you can climb up, which were damp and a touch slippery. If there has been substantial rain then water can flow inside the cave, we had one small stream, but nothing that caused any issues moving around.

A couple of days earlier the rain had been so torrential that the winch shut early as the cave got so wet - but given the time of year the winch takes place, I’d guess this isn’t common!

Although there is only one main chamber that non cavers can explore (those with gear and experience can delve into miles of tight passages and those are the people you’ll see emerging from the cave like mud monsters - we were wondering what we’d got ourselves into until we realised!), you can actually spend quite a while just taking in the atmosphere.

We were down there for two hours, although 30 minutes of this was waiting in the queue to get back up! Having said that, we’re the type of people that linger for ages at places, so I could easily see many people being happy with half this time, or even less.

The winch back up to the top is just as exciting as the descent, an otherworldly experience.

Things to know before visiting Gaping Gill

1. The winch only operates for two weeks a year

The winch is run for one week in May and one week in August. In May it’s run by the Bradford Pothole Club and in August by the Craven Pothole Club.

At time of writing, the cost of the winch is £30 in both May and August. As I write this post in September, the dates for the next winch in May are already available, so you have quite a bit of notice to organise your trip.

The winch actually operated across eight days the year we visited, although there were two half days where it had closed early due to severe weather, which may be the reason they went for an extra day. The winch does operate in rain, but if it’s torrential it will likely close.

The brilliant thing about Craven Pothole Club (who operated the winch when we visited) and I am sure Bradford is the same, is the way they update social media. I started following their Facebook account and the updates they gave several times a day really helped us plan our trip.

It’s perhaps less relevant now as you will already have your ticket in advance, but it’s still useful for weather updates.

They even put up posts about lost property, which the fact that given everyone operating the winch is a volunteer, was above and beyond.

2. You must book in advance

Happily both clubs operating the winch now allow, and in fact, insist upon making a booking online. Considering we queued for over five hours when this was not possible, I can wholeheartedly say this is going to make your experience much more enjoyable. The only downside is that you need to be more organised and make sure you get your tickets in advance as they sell out long before the winch week takes place.

Here is the booking page for the May winch and the August winch.

3. You will still have to queue

Though the queues will be minimal now due to the new booking system, you will still have some waiting time as you will be given a one hour time slot and must arrive 30 minutes beforehand. This means you could be waiting up to 1.5 hours to get down if you are last in the queue for your time slot.

My advice would be to bring a few things to make yourself more comfortable - plenty of warm gear, a picnic blanket and food to make a day of it. You could luck out with beautiful sunny weather (in which case you’ll want suncream and shade of some kind), but for us it was 14C and horribly windy in August.

4. You’ll need to walk for 5.3 miles (8.6km)

You can’t drive to Gaping Gill, so everyone will have to do the 5.3 mile return walk. The elevation gain is 235m, and it is pretty much uphill all the way to the winch. The first 1.2 miles (2km) are on a really well maintained path, because this is the trail that takes you to Ingleborough Cave.

After the cave, the track is more rustic in parts. There are a couple of stiles and some stony terrain, particularly through and after Trow Gill. I wouldn’t say it was hard and only one tiny 100m section was a bit slippery, but when you’re trying to move fast, it is a bit tedious.

If it’s been very wet and the rock is slippery, or you don’t enjoy uneven terrain, you can take an easier path along Clapham Bottoms that avoids Trow Gill. This is a slightly longer route, but avoids the rocky section.

The good news is you couldn’t possibly get lost as it’s a very well defined path all the way. You’ll pass Ingleborough Cave, followed by Trow Gill 900m later, and not long after Trow Gill there will be a signpost pointing you over a stile towards Gaping Gill.

Unless you’re really lucky there will also be other walkers heading the same way.

The walk took us 45 minutes, but we were moving fast. We didn’t stop, didn’t take photos and just power walked, which wasn’t overly fun. I would say an hour would be more comfortable.

5. There’s more to explore in the nearby area

Now that you no longer need to queue for hours, there is more time to explore the surrounding area. You’ll already have had a bit of a walk to reach the winch, but if you’re still feeling energetic you could climb Ingleborough Mountain, which continues on from Gaping Gill. It was completely shrouded in cloud on our visit, but some people still did it. From Gaping Gill we think it would be an additional 2 miles (each way) to reach the top.

The great Alfred Wainwright declared it the finest of all the Yorkshire peaks, so you know it’s going to be a good walk if the weather is in your favour.

Approximately 1.4 miles (2.2km) before Gaping Gill you will pass Ingleborough Cave, which you can explore on a self guided tour. It’s an interesting cave with some fabulous formations and we did enjoy it, though felt it was a little on the pricy side considering you don’t have a guide.

Essential info about Gaping Gill

Facilities available at Gaping Gill

The short answer is, very little! Unless it’s different in May, there are a coupe of portaloos, but that’s it. We’d recommend bringing food, drink, suncream and bug spray (we didn’t have midges, but were told they had been bad the day before, perhaps that’s one thing we can be grateful to the wind for!).

The closest place to get proper food is the Sawmill Cafe, but that’s located at the trailhead, so it’s a pretty long walk.

We stopped at the cafe afterwards and they had some pretty good sweet treats and very friendly staff. If they have the biscoff brownie, get it!

However, we hadn’t realised beforehand, as it was closed when we passed by, that you could get drinks and snacks from Ingleborough Cave. That’s a much closer walk at around 1.4 miles (2.2km) from Gaping Gill. They have fizzy drinks and water, as well as ice cream and chocolate bars. They also sell tea and instant coffee.

Where to park and how to get your trail tickets early

So there is technically parking on the Riverside lane just before the trailhead and it’s free with no time limit. We parked there and were surprised to see lots of people walking up from the national park car park, which is a five minute walk further away. There were no signs saying not to park where we did, so that would be my recommend assuming that doesn’t change in the future.

The Ingleborough Estate Trail tickets are sold at the Sawmill Cafe. It was open from 6.30am on our visit, but if you arrive before it opens, you can buy your ticket from the machine just by the trail entrance (it looks like a car park ticket machine).

If you want to visit Ingleborough Cave, these tickets can be bought at the cave itself (currently an adult ticket is £13).

What to bring to Gaping Gill

The area where you wait to enter the cave is very exposed, You’re out on the hills with no shelter whatsoever. Whether it’s sun, wind, or rain, you are going to feel it all. I had my down jacket with me which was a lifesaver, but due to the wind and cold temperatures I wished I’d had thermals on.

Check the forecast carefully and bring layers. Remember that when you’re just sitting around you will get colder than you might imagine.

If it’s hot, there will be no shade, so you’d also want sun protection etc. We didn’t need bug spray, but we heard the day before there were a lot of midges.

You don’t need any special gear, the only thing you really need is a torch and waterproofs. I wore my waterproof jacket, but didn’t use waterproof trousers - though the club recommends that you do. Helmets are provided.

Transport to the trailhead

The walk to Gaping Gill begins in the small village of Clapham in the Yorkshire Dales. It’s roughly a 10 minute drive from Ingleton, 40 minutes from Skipton and 40 minutes from Kendal. The easiest way to get there is to drive.

If you do need to come by public transport you can get there by train. At the time of writing, there are trains from Leeds to Lancaster (that stop throughout the Yorkshire Dales) every two hours.

Minimum age requirement for Gaping Gill

When we visited the sign said the minimum age for winching into Gaping Gill is seven years old. However, it did mention it would be at the discretion of the volunteers and I did see one or two children that definitely looked younger than 7 (and they loved it!).

Incidentally, if you’re thinking about bringing your dog, they can’t come down into the cave and someone must be supervising them at all times in the queue.

Where to stay in Clapham - the start of the trail to Gaping Gill

Although the village of Clapham is small, there are a few hotels and b&b’s.

New Inn Hotel (7 minute walk from the trailhead)

Swallows Nest Bed and Breakfast (8 minute walk from the trailhead)

Wenning Bank holiday home (1.5 miles from the trailhead, which is about a 35 minute walk)

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