The Yorkshire Ramblers' Club (YRC) was founded in Leeds on 6 October 1892.[1] It is the second-oldest mountaineering club in England (the oldest being the Alpine Club), and the UK's oldest caving club,[2] active in mountaineering and caving in the UK and internationally.
The club’s purpose is to enable “…experienced and competent hillwalkers, scramblers, climbers, mountaineers, ski-tourers, snowshoers, cavers and explorers who want to meet enthusiastic like-minded individuals to pursue their chosen activities in the UK and abroad.”[3]
History
On 13 July 1892 four Yorkshire gentlemen met at the home of Herbert Slater in Leeds 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 on 6 October 1892 it was unanimously decided to form a club to organise walking and mountaineering expeditions and encourage the study of nature. 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. From the club’s beginning, members were meeting in “…Switzerland, for instance, and greater attention was paid to climbing in the Lake District, North Wales, and other mountainous parts of the British Isles.”[4]
Club member Harold Brodrick published a survey of Marble Arch Cave in scientific journals in 1909.
Cave exploration
YRC members were major exponents of early cave exploration in Great Britain and in Ireland. From 1907, YRC members took a close interest in County Fermanagh, Ireland (later Northern Ireland) with occasional forays into Counties Leitrim and Cavan. Their work included surveys of Marble Arch Cave and its feeders,[5] the first complete descent of Noon's Hole and many other pots. From 1950, in association with the Craven Pothole Club,[6] they considerably extended the Marble Arch system and opened up new ground in Counties Sligo and Cavan.[7]
From 1935 to 1937 the club was active in the Burren, County Clare 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[8]), as well as exploring some of the pots on the west side of Slieve Elva (Faunarooska, etc.), Coolagh River Cave and Ballycasheen, near Corofin.[9]
In 1968 and 1969 a YRC caving team[10] in conjunction with the Speleo Club du Liban[11] discovered and explored the Magharet El-Khassarat cave system at Antelias, north of Beirut.
More recent international caving expeditions have been conducted in Guangxi, China (2000),[12] Fengshan, China (2004–05) and Iran (2008).
Dorje Lakpa (centre, 1995 YRC expedition) and Loenpo Gang (right, 1957 YRC expedition).
The 1957 YRC expedition to the Jugal Himal in Nepal was the first British Himalayan expedition to be sponsored by a single club and drawn from its own members.[16] Six YRC members and six climbing Sherpas – Crosby Fox, leader, George Spenceley, deputy leader, Wilfred Anderson, Dan Jones, Arthur Tallon, Maurice Wilson, Mingma Tensing, Lakpa Norbu, Lakpa Tsering, Pemba Gyalen, Ang Temba, and Pemba Tensing – attempted the first ascent of Loenpo Gang (6,979m) in the Jugal Himal range. While returning to Camp IV (5,800m) from a reconnaissance, Fox, Spenceley, Mingma Tensing and Lakpa Norbu were avalanched. Only Spenceley survived, withdrawing the remainder of the team from the mountain.[17]
More recent international trips have included:[18]
Between 1892 and 1896, club meetings were held in the Victoria Hotel behind Leeds Town Hall. Between 1896 and 1924 the Club lodged at the Thoresby Society’s premises on Park Street, Leeds, before taking on a more peripatetic existence for the middle part of the 20th Century: in 1924 the Club moved to 10 Park Square, Leeds[28] where its library was also housed, until 1941. In 1941 the Club moved to a room in the Salem Institute in Hunslet,[29] and then to York Place, Leeds. Today, the Club’s hut at Lowstern serves as its headquarters.[30]
Lawrence Geoghegan's 1932 novel The Subterranean Club[38] features a fictionalised account of the YRC, informed by the author's visit to Rowten Pot and Yordas Cave with members of the Club.[39]
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