Five previously unknown accounts of the discovery of the cave are presented. Two of these are recently discovered newspaper accounts and the other three are letters written by the poet Robert Southey dating from immediately before and after his visit to the cave on 27th January 1797. In these letters Southey refutes the accuracy of details given in other, still untraced, accounts and presents his own observations.

This paper adds to the biographical information about the members of the pre-World War One Bristol Speleological Research Society. In particular, the only previously unidentified signatory of the visitors’ book at Gough’s Cave on 28th February 1914, believed to be “J.A.” or “Ja.” Kerry, is identified as Frank Augustus Kerry born 8th February 1878 at Stoke Newington, Middlesex.

A summary is presented of a multi-club expedition to the Kameno-More region, “Sea of Rock”, of Montenegro specifically relating to the extension of the cave, Pištet 4, which is ongoing. It is now the 7th deepest cave in the country. A short, muddy pitch at the base of mud banks c.20 m high marks the current limit of exploration. A large chamber is visible ahead.

The Witch’s Chimney in Wookey Hole contains the largest concentration of ritual protection marks so far discovered in any cave. These are described and the growth of the folk narrative of the Witch of Wookey Hole is examined to place the marks in their social context. A poem by James Jennings, The Mysteries of Mendip or the Lost Lady provides a possible link between Wookey Hole and Long Hole. This is examined and a possible origin for the practice of banishing ghosts to the Red Sea is suggested.

This paper summarises the small surviving human bone assemblage from Totty Pot cave, Mendip, Somerset, and presents the results of a programme of AMS dating on six individuals. The results confirm the presence of one previously identified Mesolithic individual (7445-7080 cal BC), but unexpectedly place the other five individuals spanning the Middle to Late Neolithic, from ca. 3500 to ca. 2600 cal BC. The site is discussed in the broader context of earlier prehistoric human remains in other Mendip caves, and, for the Neolithic, in terms of the decision of whether to bury in a cave or in a mortuary monument.

Excavations conducted in the 1960s at Totty Pot, a cave on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, recovered both human and animal bones. A secure stratigraphic sequence within the cave was not established during the excavations and as a result the association of the animal and human bones is undetermined. A minimum of six human individuals were identified and a programme of AMS dating (Schulting et al. this volume) has confirmed the presence of one previously identified Mesolithic individual and dated the other five to the Middle and late Neolithic. A radiocarbon date on an aurochs bone from the site also returned a Mesolithic date. The range of fauna represented in the 1960s assemblage includes aurochs, domestic cattle, red deer, roe deer, horse, wild and domestic pig, sheep/goat, fox, cat, dog, badger, hare and rabbit along with bones of small mammals, amphibians and birds. The range of vertebrates is of a Holocene rather that Pleistocene aspect and this corresponds with the radiocarbon dates and artefactual record. The range of species represented, however, indicates that it is a mixed assemblage with a potentially long chronology.

The geographical distribution of mass movement caves north of the Peak District National Park is reviewed along with recent scientific work undertaken on these sites. They are much more widespread than solutional caves and offer opportunities to expand speleological research into areas with no karst features.

Dating of speleothems from exposed fissures on the Isle of Portland show that fissuring on the east side of the Isle had started before 54 ka in Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 with speleothem growth also occurring in MIS 2.