Yordas Cave is a solutional cave in Kingsdale, North Yorkshire, England. It has been renowned since the eighteenth century as a natural curiosity, and was a show cave during the nineteenth century. It is now a popular destination for cavers, walkers, and outdoor activity groups.
Description
The old show cave entrance is in a plantation of trees from the road, at the base of a small cliff, at the bottom of a small gorge. A flight of three steps descend from the entrance archway into the Main Chamber, long, and wide. A stream flows across the floor, and disappears into some low passages to the left. Also on the left, a low passage can be followed for a few metres to the Back Door entrance in a shakehole. At the upstream end of the chamber two passages soon unite in the spray-lashed Chapter House chamber, where a waterfall enters and the showcave ended. Above the waterfall, a passage leads to a junction, with the water flowing from a low long passage which leads to the base of Yordas Pot, an alternative entrance with a shaft. The water enters from a side fissure just below the lip of the shaft. Turning right at the junction leads to a climb, and then to two entrances in the upper gorge. The shafts are equipped with resin P-hangers allowing the cave to be descended and ascended using standard single rope techniques (SRT). The route from the gorge to the bottom entrance may also be descended using canyoning-style techniques, with the last person down a pitch pulling down the rope.
Etymology
The name Yordas is thought to come from the Old Norse 'Jörð á ', translated as 'earth stream'. The association with a giant called Yordas probably came from the tale recounted to John Hutton when being shown around the cave by the local guide in about 1780 "this place had formerly been the residence of a giant called Yordas; from which circumstance he accounts its name."
Geology and hydrology
Yordas Cave is a solutional cave formed in Visean Great Scar limestone from the Mississippian Series of the Carboniferous period. Yordas Beck normally sinks at the top of the gorge, and reappears from a passage near the top of Yordas Pot. From the base of the shaft it follows the passage down to the Chapter House waterfall, before disappearing in confined passages at the end of the Main Chamber. In flood conditions a lake can rise in the Main Chamber up to deep, before the water is able to flow out of the show cave entrance. The underground stream next appears in Kingsdale Master Cave, and it resurges at Keld Head down the valley. The Main Chamber is several hundred thousand years old, and was formed by solution under phreatic conditions before the Kingsdale valley had formed and allowed it to drain. The square profile of the chamber has resulted from rock collapses from joints. A number of different false floors which may still be seen clinging to the walls indicate that the cave was subject to cycles of deposition and re-excavation during the recent ice ages.