Lancaster-Ease Gill Cave System


Please Note - This Easegill guide is no longer being actively updated, but has been left online as a useful reference

The Caves under and around Ease Gill on the Cumbria/Lancashire of border of the UK form part of the longest and most complex system in Britain, the Three Counties System. See link to "UK longest and deepest list". The system extends beneath Casterton, Leck and Ireby Fells around the western and southern flanks of Gregareth Hill, with around 89Km of passages. The caves are formed in the Carboniferous (Dinantian) Great Scar Limestone.They contain a wide range of passage types, sediments and speleothems. See page on Science

Aerial photos of Casterton Fell



Material for the accounts has been obtained from numerous sources but special mention should go to the "Northern Caves 3" Guide book, the "Northern Sump Index", produced by the CDG and to John Gardner's website

If you would like to return to the Red Rose site at anytime just click on the Red Rose at the top left of the page

Throughout the pages there are a few icons you will come across to help you navigate your way through the system. The first is a compass icon

which if clicked upon will bring up the relevant bit of the survey, and the second is a camera icon which will bring up a photograph of that point, The third is a spanner icon which will bring up the rigging guide. These topos show DMM anchors placed by Red Rose members and other cavers on behalf of the CNCC in the the caves of Casterton and Leck Fells. A full set of rigging guides punlished by the Council of Northern Caving Clubs are available from local caving shops. ( See CNCC rigging website)

The fourth is a key icon which will bring up a map of the cave entrance locations. to return to the text just click BACK on your browser's tool bar. On the left is a list of entrances to the system just click the mouse on the entrance you wish to start at and follow the passage down until you meet a junction, then click the direction you wish to go until you get to the present limit of this guide !! This guide is designed to be used in conjunction with the Ease Gill Surveys compiled by:- The Red Rose Cave and Pothole Club.