Long Kin East - Rift Pot System

Rift Pot was first descended in 1904 by members of the Yorkshire Ramblers Club. The full descent was made over three separate days, with the party being hampered by a large quantity of loose rock. They named the pothole, Rift Pot, "because of its characteristic form, it being literally a huge vertical rift in the limestone". In 1904 a party the Yorkshire Speleological Association (YSA) including Eli Simpson, dug through the boulders at the bottom of what is now known as Long Kin East Pot, to reach the continuation of the Long Kin East Cave streamway. Two more explorations took place in 1904 and 1905, but it is unclear how far was reached. In 1906 the followed the stream through to the head of the shaft which drops in the final chamber of Rift Pot. They also discovered the traverse over the head of the big pitch leading to the top of The Bridge in Rift Pot from where they could discern daylight filtering through from ahead. The connection between the two caves was made in 1908 when a group who had descended Long Kin East Cave hung a ladder from the bridge and joined a party who had descended Rift Pot. The first descent of the big pitch in Long Kin East was made in 1925 by members of the Gritstone Club, when they also produced a survey of the relationship between the two caves. The first mention of the upstream passages was in October 1969 when University of Leeds Speleological Association reported that they had surveyed them in 1967. The 68 Series were explored in 1968 by members of the same club.