History
Great Douk must have been known for a very long time, but the first reference to it may be found in John Hutton's Addendum to the second edition of West's Guide to the Lakes published in 1780. Hutton and party explored the cave for some 50 yards (46 m) beyond the Little Douk Pot window. Thereafter a visit to the entrance at least, seems to have been on every passing tourist's schedule, featuring, for example, in the 1853 edition of Garnett's Craven Itinerary.
In 1850, Howson in his guidebook to Craven reported that it was possible to penetrate beyond Little Douk for "about seven hundred yards", and the Balderstons in Ingleton: Bygone and Present published in 1888 described how the cave can be explored to where "the subterranean river is found to have its branches like a subaerial stream" – i.e. to within a 100 yards (91 m) of the exit at Middle Washfold. The connection with Middle Washfold was made on 1 August 1936 by Norman Thornber and E.J. Douglas of the British Speleological Association and F. King of the Northern Cavern and Fell Club. The connection with Middle Washfold Sink was made by members of the Leeds University Speleological Society (ULSA) in February 1966.
The connection with Southerscales Pot was made in 1966 by members of the Cave Diving Group following the exploration of Southerscales Pot by ULSA.
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