This paper presents an account of Reservoir Hole, including a description and survey of the cave and a history of exploration. The geomorphology of the cave is discussed : it demonstrates several phases of development, spanning multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Initial cave development began when the water table was at, or above, 160 m OD. has fallen in stages to the current level of approx. 26 m OD. Uranium series and palaeomagnetic age data suggest that initial cave development began some time before 700 ka, and that dewatering of the higher parts of the cave took place prior to Marine Isotope Stage 11.

The cave now called Totty Pot was discovered in 1960 by archaeologist and caver, Christopher Hawkes. Subsequent excavation by Hawkes, Willie Stanton and members of the Wessex Caving Club in 1961-65, revealed a 4 m deep shaft leading to several small chambers which contained a large quantity of animal bone, flint, pottery and human remains. Microliths and a radiocarbon date of 7450-7050 cal.BC (BM-2973) on human bone indicated the presence of a Mesolithic individual buried in the cave. The 1960s excavations did not anticipate the recovery of such important Mesolithic finds and the excavation has never been published. A research excavation in 1998 by the author confirmed Totty Pot as a burial place with little or no evidence of occupation around the mouth of the cave. This paper has drawn together all the known documentation for the 1960s excavations and this, together with the data from the 1998 fieldwork, has confirmed Totty Pot as one of the significant Mesolithic and Neolithic burial places in Britain.

We present 52 mass-spectrometric U-series ages for speleothem and travertine samples from important Pleistocene mammalian faunal sites in England and Wales. All samples were analysed as part of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain projects. Ages range from >350 ka (thousand years) to ~5 ka and the majority of calcite material was deposited during interglacial periods.

Recent investigations within Cathole Cave have revealed several rock engravings that date from the Upper Palaeolithic including a stylised cervid, possibly a reindeer and, as yet indistinguishable engravings above and below the cervid.In advance of the erection of a protective steel grille in 2014, several archaeological trenches revealed evidence of anthropogenic and palaeozoomorphic activity which probably dates from a period when much of the northern and western parts of the British Isles was covered by ice. In November 2010, one of the authors (GHN) discovered the presence of a possible haematite (Fe203) spread that occupied a small section of the western wall of the main gallery of the cave.This spread was either the result of natural secretion from the substrate or it was applied via human agency.No other possible haematite spreads existed within this particular cave, although haematite is common throughout the limestone caves of the Gower Peninsula. In 2015 the Welsh heritage agency Cadw awarded a generous grant for the possible haematite spread to be sampled and chemically analysed, and for an overlying speleothem coat to be dated using uranium-series disequilibrium methods.This paper reports on the fieldwork and the first phase of laboratory research that included Raman Spectrometry, Scanning Electron Microscope analysis (SEM) and thin-section analysis on samples of loose substrate.The results of this phase of work confirm that the samples taken from Cathole Cave may be the result of pigment application.

Further occurrences and possible occurrences of mass movement caves in northern England in addition to those described in Murphy and Cordingley, 2010 are listed and described.

This report gives details on caving sites in the Coolagh River Valley, Co. Clare, visited by members of the Society during September 2015. Surveys and descriptions of sections between the main sink and south entrance were produced, paving the way for future work in the cave. Work in Pigeon Hole Wood, Co. Galway, continuing from previous years, is included.

Rapid changes in climate have been shown to be strong drivers of biological evolution and the abrupt fluctuations between warm and cold periods observed over the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary are hypothesised to have had profound effects on mammal populations. In order to investigate the persistence of a typical warm-stage taxon, the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber), in Britain over the Younger Dryas cold phase two specimens from the University of Bristol Speleological Society Museum (UBSSM) were radiocarbon dated. Age estimates of 12,386-11,836 cal BP and 11,989-11,405 cal BP suggest that beavers did indeed survive this brief cold phase in south-west England. These results suggest that Gough’s Cave functioned as a micro-refugia for this species and represent the oldest directly dated beaver remains from Britain.