United Kingdom Cave
Mossdale Caverns
76 m deep, 10 km of galleries.
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data), CC BY 4.0, with relief shading from Copernicus WorldDEM-30
The descent
76 metres down, to scale.
The real relief above Mossdale Caverns, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
Tower of Pisa (56 m) would fit upside down 1.4 times.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey.
76m
Depth
published (Wikidata)
10km
Galleries
surveyed length (Wikidata)
437m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
7°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
108m
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.
- 3°-1°Jan
- 4°-1°Feb
- 6°0°Mar
- 10°1°Apr
- 13°4°May
- 16°8°Jun
- 17°9°Jul
- 17°9°Aug
- 14°7°Sep
- 11°5°Oct
- 6°2°Nov
- 4°0°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 system in the Yorkshire Dales, England
Mossdale Caverns is a cave in United Kingdom. It goes down 76 m below the entrance and has 10 km of surveyed galleries. The entrance is at 437 m. It has several entrances and long galleries.
Getting there.
- No public accessProtected for science or for its art. Look for a replica or a visitor centre nearby.
- Grassingtonnearest town · 6.0 km in a straight line
- Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 35 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.
- 17other cave entrances within 3 kmLangcliffe Pot, Rigg Pot, Rain Pot Hole and 14 more
- 3springs within 2 kmwell
- 12sinkholes within 3 km
- 2marked hiking routes within 3 kmDales Way, Lady Anne's Way
- 2named waterfalls within 4 kmBlea Gill Waterfall, Mill Scar Lash
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 14campsites within 8 kmBuckden Camping & Pods, How Stean Gorge camping park, Low Hall Farm and 11 more
- 30hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmSweetbriar Cottage, Bridge End Farm, Kirkfield Guest House and 27 more
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- car parks within 2 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 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
- Grassington6.0 km in a straight line
- Pateley Bridge15 km in a straight line
- Embsay16 km in a straight line
- Gargrave18 km in a straight line
- Skipton18 km in a straight line
- Settle20 km in a straight line
- Hellifield21 km in a straight line
- Addingham21 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Mossdale Caverns.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Lakeyas3 lakes within 10 km
Peakyas3 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 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 4 |
| Afternoon | 3 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 6 | 4 |
| Night | -1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| Rain (mm) | 86 | 71 | 67 | 60 | 70 | 92 | 97 | 106 | 77 | 96 | 93 | 92 |
| Rainy days | 18 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 15 | 17 | 18 | 18 |
| Sun hours/day | 1.3 | 2.4 | 3.8 | 5.4 | 6.3 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 4.8 | 4.4 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 1.1 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 9 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 3 | 3 | -1 | 86 | 1.3 |
| Feb | 4 | 4 | -1 | 71 | 2.4 |
| Mar | 6 | 6 | 0 | 67 | 3.8 |
| Apr | 10 | 10 | 1 | 60 | 5.4 |
| May | 13 | 13 | 4 | 70 | 6.3 |
| Jun | 16 | 16 | 8 | 92 | 5.5 |
| Jul | 17 | 17 | 9 | 97 | 5.7 |
| Aug | 17 | 17 | 9 | 106 | 4.8 |
| Sep | 14 | 14 | 7 | 77 | 4.4 |
| Oct | 11 | 11 | 5 | 96 | 2.5 |
| Nov | 6 | 6 | 2 | 93 | 1.5 |
| Dec | 4 | 4 | 0 | 92 | 1.1 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (437 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
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 | 89% | 231% | 80% | 31% | 27% | 129% | 114% | 116% | 75% | 132% | 94% | 151% |
| 2021 | 175% | 162% | 92% | 29% | 191% | 31% | 100% | 61% | 70% | 122% | 57% | 109% |
| 2022 | 44% | 174% | 67% | 61% | 109% | 59% | 61% | 38% | 113% | 114% | 122% | 111% |
| 2023 | 88% | 37% | 171% | 131% | 56% | 60% | 159% | 101% | 135% | 144% | 136% | 178% |
| 2024 | 143% | 143% | 147% | 170% | 151% | 70% | 74% | 52% | 148% | 90% | 54% | 99% |
| 2025 | 110% | 63% | 45% | 30% | 61% | 78% | 90% | 33% | 179% | 87% | 150% | 142% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Mossdale Caverns
United Kingdom
- 76 mDepth
- 10 kmGalleries
- 437 mEntrance altitude
- 7 °CInside, all year
Ingleborough Cave
United Kingdom · 26 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 270 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Gaping Gill
United Kingdom · 27 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 401 mEntrance altitude
- 7 °CInside, all year
Mother Shipton's Cave
United Kingdom · 35 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 48 mEntrance altitude
- 9 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q6916641) · 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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