The first description of Rowten Pot appeared in verse in Thomas Dixon's
A Description of the Environs of Ingleborough of 1781:The Routing-Chasm amazing to behold,With dreadful yawn intimidates the bold:The depth unknown, vast, dismal, dark and wide,With rugged pointed rocks on every side;A rapid stream falls in with hideous roar,Growls thro the mountain to some distant shore:Dismay arrests the man that ventures near,His face turns pale, his courage yields to fear. In a guide book published in 1865, there is an account of a Mr. Hunter claiming to have made a complete descent, but the account is exaggerated and bears little resemblance to reality. It is likely, however, that the
gully had been descended to the start of the vertical descents. A considered description appears in Balderstone's 1890
Ingleton, Bygone and Present, where it was variously given the names of Rowantree Gulf, Rowting Hole, and Rowton Holes. Balderstone also claims to have explored down the gully to a depth of . It was first fully descended to the sump by a
Yorkshire Ramblers' Club party in June 1897. It was not linked with Kingsdale Master Cave through the downstream sump, however, until July 1966, shortly after the discovery of the latter. In 1939 the second recorded Yorkshire Dales
caving fatality occurred in Rowten Pot. John Lambert initially fell a few feet and was made comfortable on a ledge by his companions. Water levels then rose and he either fell or was washed off down a drop and died. Such was the effort required to rescue Lambert's companions, who were trapped by water in the shaft, that the
BBC broadcast an appeal for any available potholers to help. The first fatality for the
Cave Rescue Organisation on a rescue occurred here in 1986, when Dave Anderson slipped from a
traverse into a gully near the bottom of the last pitch when searching for two missing cavers, and drowned under the force of the water. == References ==