Cool Place of the Day: White Scar Caves, North Yorkshire
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Your support makes all the difference.Of all that's known about White Scar Caves – the longest underground show cave in Britain – the fact we love the best is about its discovery, in 1923, by Cambridge student Christopher Long, who was on holiday in the Dales. Coming upon a hole in the hillside that seemed to go on for ever in pitch-black darkness, he did what any right-thinking young man would do – crawled into it as far as he could, lighting his way with candles stuck into his bowler hat.
Thankfully, you're not faced with that prospect these days, and can instead join a slickly organised guided tour along metal-grid walkways into the heart of the cave system. It's still pretty awe-inspiring, edging through low-roofed tunnels, past thundering underground waterfalls and negotiating rock features like the rather alarmingly named Squeeze (no one's got stuck yet).
The highlight is the extraordinary Battlefield Cavern, half a mile underground and 100 feet high, plus all manner of stalactites and stalagmites in weird and wonderful forms. It's a hard-hat tour, covering about a mile on foot in around 80 minutes – unsurprisingly, pushchairs, wheelchairs, walking sticks and high heels won't make it. The other thing to note is the weather: it's pretty cool underground so a jacket is advised, and while the cavern waterfalls are at their best after rain, sometimes tours are suspended after really heavy cloud-bursts, so a call ahead in bad weather is wise. Tours run every day until the end of October, after that only on weekends.
Cool Places is a website from the creators of Rough Guides and Cool Camping, suggesting the best places to stay, eat, drink and shop in Britain (coolplaces.co.uk)
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