There are five caves in total which contain the most extensive and accessible yellow ochre workings in the Mendip Hills. A wide variety of ochre types and iron hydroxides (limonites) can be examined in situ, and the evidence of their accumulation as residual ore-bodies associated with Ice Age (Pleistocene) sediments is clearly visible.[1] The caves are also a nesting site for the Horseshoe bat a protected species.[2]
The caves were first exploited for ochre mining in the 1930s and worked until 1948.[2]
Cave one is 62 metres (203 ft) long,[3] Cave two 154 metres (505 ft),[4] cave three 92 metres (302 ft)[5] cave four 62 metres (203 ft)[6] and cave five 31 metres (102 ft) long.[7] A small additional cave is choked with rocks at a depth of 4 metres (13 ft).[8]