We're staying near ripon next weekend and wondered if anyone had any recommendations of a nice easy mine or cave to explore?

That depends very much on what you mean by both near & nice! There's loads in North Yorkshire. Just not much near Ripon!

Kirkdale Cave is about 45 minutes away to the east on the southern edge of the North York Moors & is easy though not pretty & gets grotty not far in. Most other caves on the Moors are either less than 3 yards long or more serious affairs requiring a passionate love of lying face down in liquid mud. :thumbup:

In the Dales to the west, there's a marked trail around Grassington Moor which is well worth a visit though its surface only. No idea whether there's much accessible underground round there. Not a huge amount I don't think but I'm probably wrong!

Continue past there for a 45 minutes and you're in the classic caving areas but probably beyond the scope of this forum.

Swaledale's about an hour or so to the North. Loads there, have a search of the forum. Cleveland is a similar distance but not much is readily accessible underground.

The Greenhow Hill area is about 30 mins from Ripon and is a vast moonscape of old lead mines. The surface remains are some of the most extensive you’ll see. There are odd bits of underground, nothing large though, that we have come across anyhow. Depending upon when you are there we’d be happy to take you to one of the mines that's worth a look.

Pateley Bridge has the very impressive Scot Gate Ash quarries which had underground workings -as did other quarries in the area - but we’ve not found anything explorable yet.

Or, as RJV says, up to the Dales in about an hour. Lots of good stuff in Arkengarthdale, send a pm if you need any pointers.

Stump Cross is fairly close btw if you don't mind show caves (decent cafe & choice of books to buy). Combined with a pub lunch in Pateley Bridge & an amble around Brimham Rocks will make a good day if good weather.

Well rjv we're a way off from true exploration as we lack 'proper' equipment so crawling on our tummy in mud won't happen...yet!

Rik thank you for the kind offer and one day we may take you up on it but this weekend we can't plan anything because we will be with friends some of the time but I may pm you for more advice for the future.

We love show caves but always leave us wanting more with less nannying haha