United Kingdom Peer Lawther from Leeds, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0
The descent
The entrance, at 401 m.
The real relief above Gaping Gill, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
401m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
7°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
234m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
7 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 7 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 17 °C at the entrance, 10 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- 4°0°Jan
- 4°0°Feb
- 6°0°Mar
- 10°2°Apr
- 13°5°May
- 16°8°Jun
- 17°10°Jul
- 16°10°Aug
- 14°8°Sep
- 11°5°Oct
- 7°3°Nov
- 4°1°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in North Yorkshire, England, UK
Gaping Gill is a cave in United Kingdom. The entrance is at 401 m. It lies within Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Ingletonnearest town · 5.6 km in a straight line
- Sulber Gatenearest viewpoint · 2.5 km from the entrance
- Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 57 km in a straight lineCar hire at LBA airport (Leeds, West Yorkshire)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 35other cave entrances within 3 kmBeck Head Stream Cave, Gaping Gill, Bar Pot and 32 more
- 2springs within 2 km
- 369sinkholes within 3 km
- 1caving clubs and spots within 15 kmNorthern Pennine Club
- 1viewpoints within 3 kmSulber Gate
- 3marked hiking routes within 3 kmThree Peaks Walk, Dales High Way, A Pennine Journey
- 1named waterfalls within 4 kmClapham Falls
- 8information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 27campsites within 8 kmRivers Edge, Holme Farm, Lowther Hill Caravan & Camp Site and 24 more
- 29hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmBrookhouse, The Old School Bunkhouse, Nutstile Farm and 26 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- car parks within 2 km
- bus stops within 2 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Ingleton5.6 km in a straight line
- High Bentham9.1 km in a straight line
- Settle11 km in a straight line
- Kirkby Lonsdale15 km in a straight line
- Hellifield19 km in a straight line
- Sedbergh21 km in a straight line
- Caton23 km in a straight line
- Warton25 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Gaping Gill.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Cascadyas1 waterfalls within 5 km
Peakyas6 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 4 |
| Afternoon | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 4 |
| Night | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Rain (mm) | 107 | 88 | 76 | 62 | 74 | 92 | 103 | 114 | 89 | 112 | 113 | 116 |
| Rainy days | 18 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 19 |
| Sun hours/day | 0.9 | 2.3 | 3.8 | 5.8 | 6.6 | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.0 | 4.2 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4 | 4 | 0 | 107 | 0.9 |
| Feb | 4 | 4 | 0 | 88 | 2.3 |
| Mar | 6 | 6 | 0 | 76 | 3.8 |
| Apr | 10 | 10 | 2 | 62 | 5.8 |
| May | 13 | 13 | 5 | 74 | 6.6 |
| Jun | 16 | 16 | 8 | 92 | 5.8 |
| Jul | 17 | 17 | 10 | 103 | 5.8 |
| Aug | 16 | 16 | 10 | 114 | 5.0 |
| Sep | 14 | 14 | 8 | 89 | 4.2 |
| Oct | 11 | 11 | 5 | 112 | 2.4 |
| Nov | 7 | 7 | 3 | 113 | 1.3 |
| Dec | 4 | 4 | 1 | 116 | 0.8 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (401 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 94% | 256% | 96% | 31% | 29% | 136% | 125% | 125% | 73% | 135% | 110% | 141% |
| 2021 | 154% | 155% | 119% | 23% | 187% | 31% | 82% | 63% | 73% | 142% | 57% | 104% |
| 2022 | 46% | 187% | 54% | 69% | 107% | 69% | 62% | 45% | 108% | 110% | 116% | 89% |
| 2023 | 103% | 34% | 174% | 121% | 55% | 64% | 168% | 92% | 145% | 117% | 122% | 159% |
| 2024 | 144% | 132% | 137% | 184% | 137% | 69% | 81% | 75% | 107% | 91% | 55% | 104% |
| 2025 | 95% | 62% | 39% | 33% | 69% | 106% | 85% | 41% | 185% | 89% | 144% | 137% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Gaping Gill
United Kingdom
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 401 mEntrance altitude
- 7 °CInside, all year
Ingleborough Cave
United Kingdom · 2 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 270 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
White Scar Caves
United Kingdom · 4 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 246 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Easegill System
United Kingdom · 12 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 296 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q1493828) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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