Stump Cross Caverns

At the beginning of July we decided to take a short break to North Yorkshire for a few days, and typically the weather was wet and miserable, so on our first day we headed to somewhere we could shelter for a couple of hours. Stump Cross Caverns was top of our list, and when we arrived there were only a couple of other cars in the car park.

We had booked tickets in advance online just in case, but we probably could have just wandered in without booking. We had a very warm welcome when we got there by the staff and after a short wait we were given an introduction about what to expect in the caves and watched a 5 minute video about the history of the caverns. At this point we were given a map of the cave system and a UV torch which enhances the fluorescent crystals in the caves. This was all very well organised, then off we went for a self led tour of the caves after putting on a very fetching and absolutely necessary hard hat.

There were 65 steps down into the caves and it was dark and damp along the way, however, the UV torch provided a bit of light. The caves are wet, slippery and uneven - as you might expect - so it was a good thing we had our walking boots on. Worth mentioning that it's a cool 7 degrees in the caves all year round so bring a jumper too.

Stump Cross Caverns were discovered in 1860 by two lead miners, William and Mark Newbould, who were merrily working away and broke through into the cave system. Although they didn't find lead, they opened up access to the caves and Victorian visitors headed down to peep at the stalactites and stalagmites, for a fee of 1 Shilling. The caves are a bit pricier now but well worth the fee!

Wandering around, we discovered some really impressive formations and a few of them are named after things they potentially look like. We found 'The Butcher's Shop', which appears to have cuts of meat hanging up due to the strange formations of the stalactites and another favourite was 'The Sleeping Cat' which did resemble a cat curled up asleep, though you had to use your imagination for a few of the others.

Wandering further into the caves it became very apparent why we had hard hats. I think we both knocked our heads on the roof approximately 47 times and you could hear the clatter of hard hat on limestone echoing around the chambers from everyone else doing it as well. Some parts of the caves require lots of crouching down and they got quite narrow so worth bearing in mind if that doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy. There are more than 6km of cave systems at Stump Cross, but the public can currently only access 800m of this network at the minute. Excavations are still going on, however, and maybe in the future there will be more to explore.

As well as the fascinating geological formations, there have been a number of prehistoric finds discovered in the caves dating back to the last ice age (around 80,000 to 90,000 years ago - wowsa!).These include wolverine skulls and jaws, bison, reindeer and even arctic foxes, which are thought to have fallen into natural shafts in the earth whilst scavenging for food.

The wolverine skulls and jaw bones are particularly interesting because wolverines became extinct in the UK around 6,000 years ago, and are extremely rare to find. One wolverine skull was discovered in 1922 by Cambridge medical student Christopher Long and his fellow cavers, while earlier this year (February 2026) another wolverine jaw bone was found by a caver named Rowan Worsman. They must have been over the moon!

We spent about an hour here, but there is a cafe and a cool shop if you want to extend your visit, and those all-important loos. This is a really great place to visit and they have plenty of activities for kids too if you know any budding geologists. If you want to know prices and opening times, head over to their website: Stump Cross Caverns