Wookey Hole Caves
Although Mendip offers many sports and leisure activities, many tourists come for the Wookey Hole Caves, which offers a glance at the prehistoric nature of the caves, and also offers a variety of interest for children of all ages. At one time Madame Tussauds owned the caves and joined with the mill to open as a tourist attraction, and eventually Wookey Hole Caves was purchased by a former circus proprietor. There is also a museum among the other attractions. Additionally there is a museum in Wells that exhibits some of the bones of prehistoric animals found at Wookey Hole.
The history of the caves is linked with the Mendip Hills which are honeycombed with many caverns formed by millions of years of water that carved out the limestone leaving gorges and caves above and under the hills. A small cave occupied by Hyenas in the Old Stone Age some 400,000 years ago is near the Wookey Hole Caves, which has been occupied alternately by prehistoric man and animals. In 1857 workman digging the canal found the remains of a prehistoric man, including flint tools, as well as the bones of animals. Archeologists surmise that Paleolithic man occupied the hills; and in 1912 remains of an Iron Age woman with other items were found; leading to further exploration in Wookey Hole to the "Witch's Kitchen", "Hells Ladder" and the "Badger Hole" where 3rd century Roman coins were found. The caves are a virtual history of the ages, with even the foundations of Roman buildings, dating from the 1st to the late 4th century found outside the cave.
There have been numerous other finds, all leading archaeologists to the belief that man lived in and around the caves for 50,000 years, using the caves as a safe haven. The Celts, who farmed the land, lived in or near the cave entrance for more than six hundred years, with the Romans subduing them in order to settle the region and exploit the mineral resources. This is a region that exudes history, myth and Arthurian legend, creating more than a little interest through the centuries in the caves at Wookey Hole, with their vast chambers and unfathomable waters which, in some places go to uncertain depths.
This is the Wookey Witch that is displayed on the rocks as you enter the cave.
