In 1850, Howson in his guidebook to Craven reported that it was possible to penetrate beyond Little Douk for "about seven hundred yards", and the Balderstons in Ingleton: Bygone and Present published in 1888 described how the cave can be explored to where "the subterranean river is found to have its branches like a subaerial stream" – i.e. to within a 100 yards of the exit at Middle Washfold.