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 When
you visit Wookey Hole Caves your guide will relate the 50,000
year history of the caves as home to both humans and animals.
Take
a 360° interactive Panoramic Virtual Tour
Archaeologists’ finds indicate
man has lived in and around the caves for 50,000 years.
For people in ancient times,
the caves at Wookey Hole were a safe and even comfortable
place to live. They were dry, easy to defend, warm in winter
and cool in summer.
 The
bones of tropical and Ice Age animals, such as rhinoceros,
bear, mammoth and lion, were found in the Hyena Den, along
with flint tools.
Archaeologists reckon that the
cave was occupied by hyenas and man alternatively between
35,000 and 25,000 BC.
It seems that packs of hyenas
drove their prey over the cliff edge and then ate the remains.
There is even a theory that early man may have done the same!
 The
Celts were farmers who had lived in or near the cave entrance
for more than six hundred years. They used the part near the
entrance because it was still quite light.
They burnt animal fat in simple
lamps to explore deeper into the caverns. They reached as
far as Chamber 4 which they used as a burial chamber.
 2,000
years ago the Romans arrived to settle the region, build roads
and exploit the rich mineral resources of the Mendip Hills.
They subdued the local Celts in order to safeguard their newly
opened lead mines and transport routes.
During the Dark Ages the Legend
of the Witch of Wookey grew. Some said King Arthur came over
from Avalon and slew her, others that the Abbot of Glastonbury
sent Father Bernard to exorcise her, and he turned her to
stone by sprinkling holy water on her.
Not a lot is known of the history
of the cave until the 18th century, when the poet Alexander
Pope visited it and had several stalactites shot down out
of the roof to take home as souvenirs!
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The Caves Today
Today the caves are home to different
animals. Horseshoe bats hibernate in the caves during the
winter and sleep there at other times of the year.
There are no fish but divers
have seen frogs, eels and freshwater shrimps in the underground
waters.
Insects such as moths and mosquitoes
spend their winters in the caves.
They are food for the only creature
that lives there all the year round - the cave spider.
The Witch is said to remain in
residence in the caves to this day - watching over all these
creatures.
The
Wookey Hole Caves site has provided rich pickings for archaeologists
and anthropologists over the years, and several exciting excavations
have been undertaken.
In
1912 an archaeologist Herbert Balch found the almost complete
skeleton of an old woman, the remains of some goats, a dagger,
some household items and a polished alabaster ball among Iron
Age remains.
Workmen
digging the canal in 1857 found the remains of prehistoric
man, including flint tools, as well as the bones of animals
such as hyenas, mammoths, rhinoceros and lions.
Many
of these are now on display at the nearby Wells City Museum,
but most were retained and are now housed in Wookey Hole Cave’s
very own museum.
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