Human remains were found in a cave in the 1960s during quarrying activity and collected along with the animal bone which was also exposed. The cave, located just outside of the town of Cannington, was later briefly investigated by the local caving club. The bones were examined and reported on by Philip Rahtz as part of the above ground and adjacent Roman to post Roman cemetery (Cannington Cemetery). The cave bones had been thought to either belong to the cemetery, or from an earlier period, but were not radiocarbon dated at the time. Work by Cotswold Archaeology on the Cannington Bypass and Hinkley C project provided an opportunity to re-examine the cemetery archive and ignited the curiosity to resolve the actual date of the cave remains. Grant funding from BABAO paid for two radiocarbon dates, which demonstrated that both human bones were from the early Mesolithic. These results suggest that the cave in Cannington Quarry is a Mesolithic burial site, which had previously been unknown.

The karst landscapes of south western Britain are home to many caves, some of which contain Mesolithic archaeology. This comprises human remains, faunal remains, lithics and other artefacts. However, the nature of many of the original (early) excavations and the patchy archive that exists for some of the sites can make interpreting past practices at these sites challenging. Rather than “write-off” those caves with poor or incomplete records, we suggest here that much can be gained by including them in a broader, landscape-scale of analysis. In this paper, based on PhD research by Rosen (2017), we consider caves in southern Wales, the Forest of Dean and the Mendip Hills containing Mesolithic material. We propose that a multi-scalar approach, from the individual cave to the regional landscape, allows for the identification of particular practices in particular places at particular points in the Mesolithic. Such observations allow us to move beyond purely functional interpretations and consider the rich and dynamic cosmologies of this period. We suggest that such an approach may be helpful in identifying folk taxonomies – how Mesolithic communities organised and understood their world – and the central role that caves may have played in this.

This report gives details on the Coolagh River Cave, Co. Clare, and ongoing work to resurvey it conducted by members of the Society in September 2020. Surveys and descriptions of the Main Drain to the Terminal Sump, the Second Bedding Cave and parts of the Northern Branch were produced or built upon from work conducted in September 2015 (Gregg and Podesta, 2016), allowing for further future work.

Anchor Church is an artificial cave at Ingleby in Derbyshire, it is cut into a cliff on the south side of a tributary of the Trent. The site has been long suspected to have been a hermitage and has been identified with Saint Hardulph, a deposed Northumbrian king who seemingly retired as a hermit at this site. The fabric of the cave itself has been presumed to largely relate to the use of the site in the 18th or 19th century by the inhabitants of nearby Foremarke Hall. Analysis shows that such a late origin for the structures is very unlikely and that modifications in the 18th or 19th century were on a small-scale and saw no significant enlargement of the existing caves. The phasing, the known history, comparison with similar sites, architectural analysis and the few surviving diagnostic features strongly suggest an early medieval origin for the site, probably dating back to the 8th century. This may be a unique example of an almost intact early medieval domestic interior and requires further study.

An archaeological investigation, consisting of the excavation and recording of Cist Cave and associated features: a levelled platform, and a possible ‘cist’, was undertaken by members of Axbridge Caving Group between 21st and 25th August 2017. The results of the investigation were inconclusive and no artefactual evidence for dating the ‘structures’ associated with Cist Cave were recovered during the excavation.