Stephen Aldhouse-Green’s excavations at Hoyle’s Mouth obtained new sedimentological, faunal and lithic artefact assemblages. The historic record of an Aurignacian burin busquée remains the only cultural evidence for a pre-Last Glacial Maximum use of the cave. The research dated faunal remains through MIS 3 and added little to the faunal record from south Wales for this earlier time. The Late Glacial artefact assemblage was enhanced by new finds which can be connected to an early Late Glacial faunal assemblage of mammals, microfauna and avian remains from the new excavations. Artefacts were discovered stratified deep within the cave leading to a consideration of the use of the cave during this period. All the lithic artefacts were studied and similarities between those from Hoyle’s Mouth and Gough’s Cave, Cheddar, Somerset were noted. The faunal assemblage provides evidence for the local contemporary environment and climate. Later use of Hoyle’s Mouth, with a Mesolithic knapping floor above the cave entrance, and the use of the Recess within the cave as a burial place for Neolithic people are described.

Work took place at Little Hoyle in 1984, 1986 and 1990. Excavation took place in the west facing entrances to the cave and on the platform outside these entrances. There was also excavation around the south entrance, and in the cave interior. The surviving deposits at Little Hoyle span at least 128,000 years. Basal clay deposits accumulated under cold conditions in the Early and Middle Devensian. There is then evidence for a period of interstadial conditions between 50,000 and 40,000 BP. The succeeding deposits are a series of stony clays and matrix supported breccias which formed slowly under cold conditions after this date and down to at least 14,500 BP. These were in turn succeeded by Holocene sediments which have largely been disturbed by previous excavations. Lithic artefacts included part of an Upper Palaeolithic convex-backed point, an Early Mesolithic blade core, and a small Neolithic assemblage. There is a single bone needle from the 19th century excavations at the site. Early Neolithic pottery was recovered from above the cave. Faunal remains include evidence for denning by brown bears in the cave interior, alongside evidence for hyaena, wolf, fox, woolly rhinoceros, horse and reindeer in the wider environment. An assemblage of human remains from earlier excavations within the cave were re-assessed as part of the current project. The minimum number of individuals in the assemblage is 11 and radiocarbon dates on five of these have provided earlier Neolithic results.

Cave 19, situated in the Wye Valley south of Symonds Yat in Herefordshire, was subject to a test excavation in 2017. Brief details of the excavation and the finds are given. One item of note was a small piece of worked bone found in a redeposited spoil. This is interpreted as a fishing lure. Unfortunately, it did not come from a datable context, and it may be of almost any age. It seems likely that the engraved marks upon it were probably made with a hafted metal blade.