White Scar Cave, near Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales, is Britain’s longest show cave, with a guided trail running roughly a mile underground past thundering waterfalls, ancient rock formations and thousands of stalactites, ending in one of the largest cave chambers open to the public anywhere in the country. It was discovered almost by accident in 1923 by a Cambridge student following the sound of running water, and the site visitors walk through today, including its single biggest attraction, wasn’t even accessible to the public until Cornish tin miners finished tunnelling into it nearly seventy years later. Admission is charged, every visit is guided, and the whole tour takes about 80 minutes.

History of White Scar Cave

1923: Christopher Long’s Discovery

In August 1923, Christopher Long, an undergraduate at Cambridge, was on holiday in the Yorkshire Dales when he noticed a slight fissure in the ground and, out of curiosity, decided to investigate. Drawn on by the distant roar of running water, he scrambled over jagged rocks and through pools, lighting his way with candles stuck to the brim of his hat, until he found himself standing at the foot of a waterfall no one had ever recorded before. Long returned on further expeditions, this time with fellow geologist J.H. Churchill, swimming across underground lakes and squeezing past a huge boulder, only to have his progress eventually blocked by a jumbled mass of collapsed rock. That first waterfall Long discovered is still the first major feature visitors see today: in full spate, roughly 55 tonnes of water cascade over it every single minute.

An Ancient Unconformity: 400 Million Years of Rock

Near the cave entrance, the tour passes a genuinely striking piece of geology: the exposed floor of an ancient sea, where horizontal layers of limestone forming the cave roof sit directly above walls and floors cut into nearly vertical beds of slate. These slate beds are around 400 million years old and were crumpled upright by geological forces roughly 100 million years before the limestone above them was even laid down. The boundary between these two wildly different rock ages, technically called an unconformity, represents an almost unimaginable gap in geological time compressed into a single visible line in the cave wall.

1971: The Discovery of Battlefield Cavern

White Scar continued to draw serious cave explorers for decades after Long’s initial discovery. In 1971, members of the Happy Wanderers caving club dug their way upward through a boulder choke deep within the system, and it was 19-year-old Hilda Guthrie, the only woman in the group and reportedly the only one small enough to fit through the resulting gap, who became the first human being ever to enter a vast chamber beyond: roughly 90 metres long and 18 metres wide, predating the last two Ice Ages, and formerly the actual course of an underground river long before the surrounding valley was carved deeper by glacial ice. Struck by its boulder-strewn floor, the cavers imagined ancient giants doing battle across it, and christened it “Battlefield Cavern,” a name that has stuck ever since. It’s now recognised as one of the largest known cave chambers in Britain, and its delicate, crazy-paved mud deposits have earned the site a Site of Special Scientific Interest designation in their own right.

1991: Cornish Tin Miners Open the Tunnel

For twenty years after its discovery, Battlefield Cavern remained the exclusive preserve of experienced cavers, reachable only via the same tortuous, slippery boulder climb Hilda Guthrie and her companions had originally made. Various schemes to open the chamber to the wider public were investigated over the years and rejected, either on planning grounds or because they were simply too expensive to carry out. An acceptable plan finally emerged in 1990: a 65-metre sloping tunnel would be driven directly from a point near the cave’s underground lake through to the Battlefield chamber itself. The work was carried out by a family firm of tin miners from Cornwall, drawn to the unusual job by the sharp decline of their own home industry; at one stage, the miners worked standing chest-deep in freezing water half a mile underground while blasting the first section of tunnel. The completed tunnel, opened to visitors in 1991, is the route every tour still uses today, entirely bypassing the difficult original route Hilda Guthrie’s generation of cavers had to make.

Opening as a Show Cave

White Scar first opened to paying visitors as a show cave in 1925, just two years after Christopher Long’s original discovery, making it one of the longer-established show caves in Britain even before the 1991 Battlefield Cavern extension dramatically expanded what visitors could see. The wider cave system itself extends roughly 6.5 kilometres underground in total, though the guided visitor trail covers around 1.6 kilometres (one mile) of that, taking in the original First Waterfall Chamber that Long discovered, a series of distinctively named formations built up by mineral-rich dripping water over millennia, and the huge Battlefield Cavern at its far end.

Visiting White Scar Cave: Practical Information

Details below were checked directly against the official White Scar Cave website (whitescarcave.co.uk) on 3 September 2026. Every visit is guided and admission is charged, unlike most of the other guides on this site, so check the official site for current tour times before travelling any real distance.

Admission: £20.50 for adults (age 16+), £15.00 for children (free under 3), and a family ticket at £57.50 (2 adults + 2 children, or 1 adult + 3 children). Tickets can be bought at the ticket office on arrival, or pre-booked online, though pre-booking isn’t strictly necessary. The ticket sales window at the cave entrance opens five minutes before each tour departs.

Opening times: February to October, open daily from 10am, with tours running roughly hourly through the day and a later last tour (up to 4pm) on weekends and bank holidays. November to January, the cave is open weekends only, excluding school holidays. All tours are weather permitting, and a minimum of two visitors is required for a tour to go ahead, so check the website’s live tour-times listing or call ahead before travelling, particularly outside peak season.

Tour length: About 80 minutes, covering roughly one mile underground with a knowledgeable guide throughout. There is no self-guided option; every visit into the cave is guided.

Getting there by car: The cave sits on the road between Ingleton and Ribblehead, on the west side of Ingleborough. Address: White Scar Cave, Ingleton, North Yorkshire, LA6 3AW. An on-site car park sits beside the ticket office, café and shop.

What to wear: The cave maintains a constant temperature of 8°C year-round, so a jumper or jacket is recommended even in summer. Much of the trail is metal grid flooring, so walking sticks and other mobility aids aren’t suitable, and high heels shouldn’t be worn.

Fitness and cave layout: The tour includes 97 steps, most of them in the access tunnel to Battlefield Cavern, plus two low-roof passages where visitors need to bend at the waist while walking (hard hats are provided and must be worn throughout). The tour isn’t considered suitable for anyone with cardiac conditions, and anyone with doubts about their fitness for the walk is encouraged to contact the cave in advance.

Accessibility: Because of the natural shape of the cave passages, pushchair, buggy, wheelchair and guide dog access into the cave itself is not possible, and infants cannot be carried in backpacks on the tour. Surface facilities are more accessible: there are disabled parking spaces, a gently sloping access ramp from the car park to the visitor centre, and a toilet for wheelchair users, but the underground tour itself is not accessible for those with significant mobility restrictions.

Dogs: Not permitted inside the cave, for safety and animal welfare reasons, but dogs are welcome at the surface site as long as they’re kept under control.

Photography: Allowed throughout the cave except inside Battlefield Cavern itself, where it’s restricted for safety and conservation reasons. Video equipment isn’t permitted anywhere on the tour.

Facilities: A café and gift shop are on site at the visitor centre.

Managing body: White Scar Cave is privately owned and operated, and is a member of the Association of British & Irish Show Caves.

Contact: Phone 015242 41244 (9.30am–4pm), email info@whitescarcave.co.uk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is White Scar Cave free to visit?

No. Admission costs £20.50 for adults and £15.00 for children, with under-3s free, and a family ticket priced at £57.50. Every visit is guided; there’s no self-guided or free viewing option.

Who discovered White Scar Cave?

Cambridge undergraduate Christopher Long discovered the cave’s original entrance and first waterfall in August 1923, following the sound of running water through a narrow fissure. The cave first opened to the public as a show cave just two years later, in 1925.

Is White Scar Cave accessible for wheelchair users?

No. Because of the natural shape of the cave passages, wheelchair, pushchair and guide dog access into the cave is not possible. Surface facilities, including the car park and visitor centre, are more accessible, with disabled parking and a wheelchair-accessible toilet.

How long is the White Scar Cave tour?

About 80 minutes, covering roughly one mile underground, including 97 steps and two low-roof passages where you’ll need to bend down. The wider cave system itself extends about 6.5 kilometres in total, though only the guided trail portion is open to visitors.

What is Battlefield Cavern?

A vast underground chamber, roughly 90 metres long, discovered in 1971 by cavers from the Happy Wanderers club. It remained accessible only to experienced cavers for twenty years, until a purpose-built tunnel opened it to the public in 1991. It’s one of the largest known cave chambers in Britain.

Can I bring my dog to White Scar Cave?

Not inside the cave itself, for safety and animal welfare reasons, including guide dogs. Dogs are welcome at the surface site as long as they’re kept under control.

Is White Scar Cave suitable for young children?

Most families manage the tour comfortably, though it involves 97 steps, low-roof sections requiring bending, and roughly 80 minutes underground. Infants cannot be carried in backpacks, and pushchairs cannot enter the cave.

White Scar Cave sits close to the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail and the wider Yorkshire Three Peaks area, making it a natural addition to a longer Dales day out. Browse the wider Landmarks & Monuments guides, or visit the England hub for the full picture of the country’s history and best places to visit.