Caves of the Mendip Hills facts for kids

The caves of the Mendip Hills are amazing underground spaces found in the Mendip Hills in England. This area is famous for its many caves because of the special type of rock there. Water has carved out these caves over a very long time. Deep inside the hills, you can find Britain's largest underground river system!

How the Caves Formed

The Mendip Hills are made mostly of a rock called Carboniferous Limestone. This limestone sits on top of older rock called Old Red Sandstone. When rain falls on the sandstone, it flows down until it reaches the limestone.

When the water hits the limestone, it often disappears underground through a special opening called a "swallet" (or "slocker" by local people). The water then travels deep inside the hill, making existing cracks in the rock bigger and bigger. This is how caves are formed! Eventually, the water comes back out of the ground lower down the hill.

Sometimes, the underground rivers change their path. When this happens, parts of the caves are left dry. You might see amazing rock formations in these dry parts, like stalagmites and stalactites. These are like stone icicles that grow from the floor (stalagmites) or ceiling (stalactites) of the cave.

Stalagmites and stalactites in Gough's Cave

Many caves in the Mendips start with a steep drop, then become flatter. They often end in a "sump", which is a part of the cave that is completely filled with water. If you want to explore past a sump, you need to be a special cave diver!

Most Mendip caves are not super deep (usually less than 150 metres or 490 feet) or very long (only a few kilometres). But some are huge and complex, like Swildon's Hole, which is over 9 kilometres (5.6 miles) long! The caves around Cheddar are also very complex with many levels.

The water that flows through Gough's Cave in Cheddar comes from a large area of about 54 square kilometres (21 square miles). Scientists have used dye to track the water. They found that some water travels underground for up to 10 miles (16 km) and can take up to 14 days to reach Cheddar!

Cave History

Caves are like natural time capsules, holding clues about the past.

When Banwell Bone Cave was found in 1824, it was full of animal bones. These bones are super old, about 80,000 years old!

The oldest human burial site found in Britain was in Aveline's Hole. Scientists believe the human bones found there are between 10,200 and 10,400 years old. Imagine people living and burying their dead there so long ago!

Archaeologists have found many other interesting things in Mendip caves. These include old pottery, stone tools (flints), fireplaces, coins, and metal objects. These finds tell us about people who lived here during the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman times.

Some caves were first discovered by miners. For example, the Banwell Caves were opened by miners looking for a red mineral called ochre in 1757.

Early in the 1900s, a caver named Harry Savory took amazing photos of many Mendip caves. He used huge cameras and special flash powder. His photos are still considered some of the best cave pictures ever taken!

Important cave explorations were also done by a pioneer caver named Herbert E. Balch starting in the 1920s. All the details about these caves are kept safe in the Mendip Cave Registry and Archive.

Visiting the Caves

Some caves are easy for everyone to visit, like those at Cheddar Gorge and Wookey Hole. These are called "show caves" and have paths and lights.

However, most of the caves are much harder to get into. You need special equipment like ropes, helmets, and lights, and you also need to know what you're doing. Many of these caves have gates to protect them and are managed by local caving groups. These groups organize trips and are always looking for new parts of the caves to explore. On a busy weekend, more than 500 cavers might be exploring the Mendip Hills!

Cave Diving Adventures

The Mendip Hills are also famous for the start of cave diving. This is when people dive underwater to explore parts of caves that are completely flooded.

The very first attempt at cave diving in Britain happened at Swildon's Hole in 1934. The next year, the first successful cave dive in Britain took place at Wookey Hole Caves. One of the sumps (underwater sections) in Wookey Hole is now the deepest in Britain, going down 90 metres (295 feet)!

Special Protected Areas

Some cave systems in the Mendips are so important that they are protected as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). This means they are special for their geology (the study of rocks and how the Earth is made). These include the caves at St. Dunstan's Well Catchment, Thrupe Lane Swallet, Lamb Leer, and Priddy Caves. There are also important caves within the Cheddar Complex SSSI.

Some Famous Mendip Caves

Here are some of the well-known caves in the Mendip Hills:

Images for kids

• 

  Entrance to Swildon's Hole at Priddy, Somerset

• 

  Stalagmites and stalactites in Gough's Cave