The Yorkshire Ramblers' Club (YRC) is the second-oldest mountaineering club in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the oldest being the

Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of whi ...

. Founded in 1892, the YRC is still a highly active club mountaineering and

caving Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...

in the UK and all over the world.

History

On 13 July 1892 four

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

gentlemen met at the home of a Mr. Herbert Slater in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

to discuss the idea of forming a club for individuals interested in promoting the idea of walking and the study of the countryside. At an open meeting held at the Skyrack Inn,

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

on 6 October 1892 it was unanimously decided to form a club to organise walking and mountaineering expeditions and encourage the study of

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

. The name of the club was picked from others including The Three Peaks Club, but Yorkshire understatement prevailed and the name Yorkshire Ramblers' Club was chosen. Consequently, "greater attention was paid to climbing the Lake District", in both the club's earliest days and today with the adjoining Scottish Borders also continuing to be of particular interest to the club. Marble Arch Survey (Brodrick, H

Cave exploration

The Yorkshire Ramblers were major exponents in early cave exploration both in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Beginning in 1907, members of the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club took a close interest in

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 ...

, Ireland (later

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

) with occasional forays into Counties Leitrim and Cavan. Their work included surveys of

Marble Arch Cave The Marble Arch Caves are a series of natural limestone caves located near the village of Florencecourt in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The caves are named after the nearby Marble Arch, a natural limestone arch at the upstream end of C ...

and its feeders, the first complete descent of

Noon's Hole Noon's Hole ( Irish grid ref H12684431) lies about 5 km northwest of the centre of Boho, in the townland of Old Barr in the parish of Devenish, County Fermanagh, close to the border with Boho parish. The cave is under part of the escarpme ...

and many other pots. From 1950, in association with the

Craven Pothole Club Craven may refer to: * Craven in the Domesday Book, an area of Yorkshire, England, larger area than the district ** Craven District, a local government district of North Yorkshire formed in 1974 Places * Craven, New South Wales, Australia, see Mi ...

, they considerably extended the Marble Arch system and opened up new ground in Counties Sligo and Cavan. From 1935 to 1937 the club was active in

the Burren The Burren (; ) is a karst/ glaciokarst landscape centred in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland.
Burr ...

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,81 ...

and recorded the first descent of Pollelva (1935) and discovery of part of Upper Pollnagollum (both later linked to become the longest cave in Ireland), as well as exploring some of the pots on the west side of Slieve Elva (Faunarooska, etc.), Coolagh River Cave and Ballycasheen, near Corofin.

Mountaineering

Besides caving the club has a long history of mountaineering in the Alps and the greater ranges. Recent trips include... Himalayas: Kanchenjunga base camps, Nepal2015; Mera Peak, Nepal 2012; Dorje Lapka, Nepal 1995; Nubra, India; Sikkim, India Andes: Bolivian Apolobamba 1988 (AJ 1989 247-249); Bolivian Cocapata, Real and Occidental; Bolivian Quimsa Cruz 2010; Peruvian Cordillera Blanca 1964
YRC article
Arctic: Svalbard 2006, 2008, 2010; Greenland's Liverpool Land 2014 US south west: several visits between 1996 and 2010, ridge climbing and trails; 2015 rock climbing and backpacking in the Wind River range Africa: Morocco; Malawi 2013 Europe: Bulgaria, Romania, France, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Austria, Ireland, Iceland

Notes

References

* {{Citation , last=Coleman , first=J. C. , author-link=J. C. Coleman , title=The Caves of Ireland , publisher=Anvil Books , location=Tralee, County Kerry , date=1965

External links