The sharp and loose nature of the rock, and the quantity of water prevented full exploration for over 80 years, but the current route is described in one guide book as "a technical and exhilarating adventure".

[7] Mousehole terminates in a floor with a window through to the Gaping Gill rift, but the route deviates to the south and finishes on a large well-watered scoop-shaped ledge after a 49 metres (161 ft) descent.

[4] During the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club initial explorations of Gaping Gill the entrance to Rat Hole was buried under a bank of boulder clay, but this had washed clear by 1909.

[2] This was plumbed to a ledge 33 metres (108 ft) above the Main Chamber floor in 1912 by Wingfield,[9] which he succeeded in reaching in 1913 by traversing across from Lateral Shaft, which was used at the time for winch descents.

[11] In 1935, Craven Pothole Club took up the challenge of the undescended big pitch and after dragging in over 70 metres (230 ft) of rope ladder with associated lifelines, Arnold Waterfall and Edgar Smith achieved the first descent into Main Chamber, but no one made the ascent.

[6] Mike Wooding and John Gardner picked up the baton in late 1985, and in establishing a safer SRT route, discovered the Mousehole shaft which proved to be the key to the modern descent.

By hanging a rope through a small hole in a calcite chamber above the first pitch they were able to pendulum across at a higher level, and traverse into the inlet series.