Volunteers were left scratching their heads at the weekend after they ran out of places to look for a group of “missing” cavers.

The Clapham-based Cave Rescue Organisation was called out just after 9pm on Saturday to a report that four people from South Yorkshire had failed to emerge after supposedly exploring Simpson’s Pot at Kingsdale.

But the mystery was solved when it was realised the men had taken a wrong turning and were actually in nearby Turbary Pot – but there was no way out.

Cave rescue controller Rae Lonsdale said Turbary Pot and Simpson’s Pot were in roughly similar positions along the Turbary Road. Simpson’s Pot descends 112 metres to the valley entrance, but Turbary Pot is a dead end at a 40 metre depth.

“If potholers leave their ropes in place there is no problem, but the group was doing a ‘through trip’, pulling the rope down after abseiling down each pitch and had no means of retreat,” he said.

As CRO duty controller Dave Gallivan tried to solve the mystery, there was another SOS just before midnight – a 73-year-old Three Peaks walker, from Scotland, was well overdue. The walker was last seen at 5.25pm, heading towards Ingleborough.

“While more of our members were being called to search for him, the Kingsdale team located the missing potholers in Turbary Pot at about 1am and helped them to the surface, uninjured.

“Some members then changed from wet caving gear into dry walking kit and returned to Clapham just before 2am.”

Twenty rescuers and a search dog covered main routes off Ingleborough as well as the peak. The walker, who had aggravated an old knee injury, was found about 200 metres off the main Three Peaks path near Sulber Crossroads at about 3am.

* Late on Sunday, overdue cavers at Gaping Gill turned up safely just as 10 CRO members set off to investigate.