MIKE LAYCOCK and family donned helmets before heading beneath the Yorkshire Dales.

VICTORIA was apparently not amused when she heard what explorers had dubbed one of the formations in Ingleborough Cave: "Queen Victoria's Knickers" was hardly the respect and deference that the new monarch felt she deserved. The Queen's displeasure resulted in a hasty re-think, and it became The Showerbath.

Knickers or no knickers, the caves, discovered in 1837, became a big attraction for the Victorians, and they remain popular today for visitors to the Yorkshire Dales.

We headed for the caverns when the prolonged rainfall of late June made a country walk a muddy and unenticing prospect. We parked up in the picturesque village of Clapham and walked just over a mile along the Ingleborough Estate Nature Trail. This woodland walk took us upstream along the route of a beck, past a swollen waterfall, along the side of a lake and then through open moorland to the cave entrance.

Guided tours of the caves are organised for visitors once an hour, on the hour. We had arrived at 2.15pm, and so we sat and enjoyed an ice cream and a drink in the shop near the entrance until 3pm.

The walk involves no steps and so is suitable for pushchairs, and dogs on leads are also allowed.

We were given helmets to wear, and it soon became apparent why we needed them. The tour involves a couple of sections where the roof is no less than five feet above the ground, and only small children avoid the need to duck or stoop.

The tour takes in just a small section of a huge labryinth of passages, watercourses and potholes hollowed out of the limestone rock of Ingleborough mountain over millions of years.

Floodlighting picks out a series of spectacular formations as you proceed along the half-kilometre route.

There's the Mushroom Bed, the shape and colour of a huge mushroom; the Sword of Damocles, a huge stalactite which hangs over you most threateningly; the Skittles; Coffee Pot; Witch's Finger; Horse's Hoof; Ladies' Couch; and the Showerbath.

After the rainfall, water was percolating down through from the mountain above and, as well as dripping on visitors, was flowing over many of the formations to add to the spectacle. At one point, streams disappeared into a pothole dubbed the Abyss.

Thanks to modern-day light pollution, we rarely experience total darkness: there is normally some light present, even in the middle of the night. But deep down in the Inglebrough Cavern, after due warning from the guide, the floodlights were switched off and we discovered what total absence of light meant.

Utter blackness. Rather unnerving, and it was something of a relief when the lights came flooding back on. It was also chilly down there during our enjoyable 50-minute tour, and I would recommend visitors to the caves to take a fleece or jumper with them, regardless of how hot it might be outside.

Fact file

Ingleborough Cave, Clapham.

Open: Daily 10am-5pm - last tour 5pm.

Admission: Adults £5, children £2.50. (family - two adults and two children - £13)

Further information: 01524 251242, or visit www.ingleboroughcave.co.uk

Updated: 08:26 Saturday, July 24, 2004