Cheddar Caves

Possibly one of the most exciting tourist attractions in Cheddar and home to the replica skeleton of the Cheddar man, the oldest human male in Britain with a complete skeleton, in Goughs Cave in Cheddar.

The main cave of all the caves is Goughs Cave also known as the Sand Hole. Founded and excavated by Richard Cox Gough in 6 years 1892 to 1898 and they even named after him!

He was a commoner and a village person and lived in Cheddar, Lions House. Gough was born in Bedminster 1827 and married Francis Jones and they had 7 children. Then he died in Cheddar in 1902. After Gough died his nephew George Cox, took over and followed in his uncle’s footsteps and then found Cox cave.

Goughs Cave was a bit gloomy and dark but it was a great experience for me as I got to see stalagmites and stalactites. The water on the floor of the cave was orange because there is iron in the water. They have also discovered a painting of a mammoth hidden in a tiny part of the cave, which you can enter and stand up in. The cave is 115 meters long and 377 ft deep.

There were many floods for the cave is lower than the surrounding. The flooding often lasts not more than 2 days or to be precise 48 hours. In 1968 the weather did something that no one expected…. The great flood arose and flooded most of the cave and lasted for 3 days.

They found many skeletons, skulls and some animal bones including 5 to 7 adult skeletons a young child (about 3 years of age) and 2 teens.

Also an amazing discovery in 1903 of the Cheddar man who dated all the way back to 7150 BCE and is more than 900,000 years old and is also the oldest male human skeleton in Britain. Cheddar Man actually lives in the National History museum in London, and you can go and visit him any time and check out his skeleton (just check the opening times first to avoid disappointment).