Pate Hole

Pate Hole is a solutional cave located adjacent to Asby Gill south of Great Asby in Cumbria, England. It is long and has a vertical range of . The entrance is normally dry, but in flood it becomes an impressive resurgence. Its name derives from the north country word for badger.
It consists of three main passages. From the entrance a stooping height passage heading south-east reaches a large deep pool after from which a stream emerges. This flows down a low passage to the north for some where a sump is reached. The third main passage continues south underwater from the pool for at a depth of where it reaches a junction and becomes too restricted.
The cave is formed in Carboniferous limestone, and is thought to drain the Great Asby Scar area to the south-west. The resurgence is presumed to be St. Thomas's Well in Great Asby.
The main part of the cave has been known for a long time, and it was an object of curiosity in the nineteenth century. A brief foray into it was described in "The Gentleman's Magazine" in 1791, and a description appeared in "The Monthly Magazine" in 1802. The first full description complete with passage lengths appeared in 1813. The first account of an exploration by cavers was in 1941 by members of the Yorkshire Ramblers' Club, and in November 1946 it was surveyed by a group from Appleby Grammar School led by Brian Price. The upstream sump was first dived for about to a descending rift in 1960 by members of the Cave Diving Group, at which time the main part of the cave was re-surveyed by Warburton et alia. Further exploration took place in 1975-1976 by members of the same group to reach the current limit.