500,000-8500 BC Palaeolithic

South-west England contains large areas of limestone in which caves and rock-shelters have naturally formed. These provided shelter, hunting hides and living areas for people throughout the Palaeolithic period. Kent’s Cavern near Torquay, Devon, was inhabited at least 500,000 years ago, and was intermittently occupied during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic as well.

The Mendip Hills in Somerset contain numerous caves, particularly around Wookey and Cheddar. Gough’s Cave in the Cheddar Gorge was used by humans towards the end of the last Ice Age from about 13,000 years ago. It seems to have been a hunting base and perhaps later a place to dispose of the dead.

Bone, antler, teeth and ivory are well-preserved in the caves, and many of the sites have produced tools and ornaments in these materials that date to the end of the last Ice Age.

Open-air sites also survive. At Hengistbury Head in Dorset, tools have been found including projectile points, scrapers, awls and chisel-like tools called burins. The site lies on cliffs above the modern coast, but as the site dates to the end of the last Ice Age, the sea-level at the time would have been lower and the coastline several miles from the site.