This article considers the evidence for Early Neolithic long barrow construction on the West Mendip plateau, Somerset. It highlights the difficulties in assigning long mounds a classification on surface evidence alone and discusses a range of earthworks which have been confused with long barrows. Eight possible long barrows are identified and their individual and group characteristics are explored and compared with national trends. Gaps in the local distribution of these monuments are assessed and it is suggested that areas of absence might have been occupied by woodland during the Neolithic. The relationship between long barrows and later round barrows is also considered.

The Burrington area of western Mendip is well known for its caves, and contains over 3.7 km of surveyed passage. The typical Burrington cave consists of a maze network of predominantly small phreatic tubes generally aligned along strike and developed at certain preferential elevations, linked by steeply descending vadose canyons. Many of these passages are partially sediment choked. The speleogenesis of these cave systems is governed largely by the geological structure, the rate of erosion of the Mercia Mudstone in the Vale of Wrington and locally modified by sediment influx off the northern slopes of Black Down. Several well-developed former water-tables, analogous to those seen in the caves on the southern side of Black Down can be identified at elevations of 166-160 m, 151 m, 140 m, 127m, 115 m and 106 m AOD. A summary of the hydrology of the Burrington area is given and an estimate of the age of the caves calculated.

This paper describes cave explorations in Co. Clare that have taken place since the publication of The Caves of Co. Clare and South Galway in 2003 and the previous paper of this kind in 2005.