[4] A descending passage at the base of the large rocky shakehole leads to a 13-metre (43 ft) pitch, which is restricted at the top.

The main pitch (30 metres (98 ft)) is straight ahead and can be reached by traversing round the ledge on the left, or by crawling forward from the bottom of the slope.

A steeply descending passage, loose and tight in places, emerges through the floor of Small Mammal House.

[7] The cave was first entered in 1949 by members of the British Speleological Association, who moved a few boulders at the bottom of the shakehole.

[5] Small Mammal House and the Graveyard Inlet was discovered by members of Lancaster University Speleological Society in the late 1970s,[5] and Violet Ground Beetle Passage was first entered by John Cordingley in 1993.

The plans included setting up scaffolding structures supporting ladders for the two pitches, but the application was withdrawn after objections were voiced by a number of interested parties including the British Cave Research Association, the Nature Conservancy Council, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park.