Wookey Hole Caves
Wookey Hole Caves near Wells in Somerset are a complex of limestone caverns carved by the River Axe in the southern foothills of the Mendip Hills, a cave system of considerable size and geological interest that has been visited as a tourist attraction since the nineteenth century and combines the natural cave formations with a Victorian paper mill and an entertaining collection of seaside and fairground attractions that make it one of the most varied heritage attractions in Somerset. The Witch of Wookey, a stalagmite formation in the first chamber that resembles a crouching figure, provides the legendary dimension to one of the largest publicly accessible cave systems in Britain. The caves were occupied by humans from at least the Iron Age, the bones and artefacts found in the cave deposits providing evidence of use over thousands of years. The excavations of Herbert Balch in the early twentieth century recovered an extraordinary collection of objects from the cave floor deposits, now in the Wells Museum, that illuminate the Iron Age and Romano-British occupation of the caves and their use as a ritual or settlement site over an extended period. The caves are formed in the Carboniferous limestone of the Mendips, the River Axe having carved its course underground through the rock before emerging at the show cave entrance. The underground river still flows through the cave chambers and the combination of the cave geology, the underground river and the stalactite and stalagmite formations provides a complete limestone cave experience of considerable quality.