Teddy Tour to Dawkabottom Cave with EdS

[QDanT]

Met EdS in Threshfield at the Grassington turn off this morning and drove up past Kilnsey Crag, then left along the Arncliffe road to park below Sleets Gill bridge.
We followed Sleets Gill up passing the cave and onto the first plateau

after another uphill slog on the level we passed a glacial erratic and let Teddy have a photo shoot

looking back after the next uphill at the erratic

to find Dowkabottom cave we climbed the next rise to look down, as on the same level it's hard to find,
and found the cave and a circle SD 95128 68884

back down with Ed having a look into the cave

before dinner mine home made bread with Blue Wensleydale and onion with a brew on a Swiss volcano
run on a Swiss alcohol gel stove which gave no problems. The pancake was another matter though.
It was that cold even with the gas inverted it would not get the cast iron frying pan hot enough to cook.Ed saved the day
with a multi-fuel primus running on panel wipe which was that hot it nearly burnt it
the next problem was the squeezey honey was frozen solid

climbing back up the pillars on the horizon drew us on

at the pillers and by now my freshly charged camera batteries gave up the ghost on changing them they were freezing cold
but the ones from my pocket were fine so kept camera inside jacket when not using

and the view from them

looking back on the pillars as we climbed higher

and the view ahead

here with some paper map work and some electronic map voodoo
we found an ancient track to follow back down to the motors

with the final view up the dale towards Arncliffe

another great day out thanks Ed for the company and the pancake rescue
cheers all Danny

 

[andybysea]

Good stuff as usual Danny, some rather bleak,but still stunning looking scenery,and it does look rather cold.

 

[Tengu]

Gosh. Did Teddy make all those pillars?

 

[Andy2112]

Great post as usual Dan, no pics of inside the cave ? What was it used for ?

 

[EdS]

Dowkabottom/Dowkybottom/Dowkerbottom Cave (various spelling) has a long history of human use including 2 pre-Roman CAVE: Dowkabottom Cave.

Other bones found also include: Cattle, sheep, goat, horse, wild boar, red deer, roe deer, badger, fox, wolf, dog, water vole, bird bones.


http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=10259


There are also a number of enclosure and bits of settlement on the hill round there.

More photos to follow.

 

[gazmc2]

great pics as usual, looked chilly...brrrr!!

 

[gsfgaz]

Great pics dan , the scenery is amazing mate, how was the volcano stove , i've got one but not used it yet ...

 

[EdS]

a few more:

Sleets Gill on the way up

watching you watching me

THe view from the entrance pitch of Dowkerbottom Cave

2 of The Knotts

Ungritted pavement. Should I complain to the council?

 

[andybysea]

It would'nt get you anywhere! , another great set of pic's guy's.Look's like the ice age has only just left.

 

[QDanT]

a good day out----------cheers Danny

 

[QDanT]

Great pics dan , the scenery is amazing mate, how was the volcano stove , i've got one but not used it yet ...

It worked great I was using one of these but no need for the pot support
(found post by using search)

Swiss Army stoves are designed to be used with the Notkocher 71 cooker. You can get them off fleabay for 1euro each. They are supplied in swiss ration packs.

because after paying DHL freight for a stove from Germany I had a few kilos of weigh spare so made it up with a box of these at 1 euro each there usually £3:50 ish on e-bay. They are very efficient with the fire going around the cup kelly kettle'ish and work with twigs fir cones etc though messy with tarring up. I use a stainless Tatonka on meths most of the time lowering it down the chimney with a piece of stiff wire hooked inside and snuffing it with an empty small tuna tin lowered on also with the wire. Any small metal lid that will fit through the "door" will work to burn meths in and solid fuel tabs or hexamine work as do the pop or beer can meths stoves.I only use the bottle if I'm wanting to sterilize some water. So all in all I think they're a great lightweight versatile stove---- hope this helps to get yours lit !
cheers Danny