They consisted of sheep, ox, rabbit, and goose and chicken bones. īlewitt went on to report that next a perpendicular shaft was dug into the lowest part of the floor of the cave, and after four feet of rubbish had been worked through a layer of bones was discovered which was found to cover the whole of the floor of the cave at about the same depth. Blewitt concluded that there was no reason to believe that such a passage had ever existed. The first step in the excavation was to find this passage, and every potential area was examined for it, especially the extremities of the cavern, where the stalagmite was quarried through in several places in search of it, but in vain. Octavian Blewitt, writing in 1832, reported that there was a tradition that the cave was once open to a much greater extent, and that one passage led to Kingswear, four miles distant. In around 1830, an excavation was carried out by the Rev. Two have been recorded, one in the 19th Century and one in the 20th Century. Several excavations have taken place in Ash Hole Cavern. Also found were several Roman coins including those of Claudius and Nero which were discovered in 1831. These have been dated to be from Roman times. Several fragments of urns have been found, in which have been found ashes and around those have been found bone fragments. There is also evidence of Roman burials in the cavern. There is evidence that the cave has been used for shelter by humans since the Bronze Age, and several pottery fragments of that era have been found just inside the natural entrance. The cave is situated close to Shoalstone Beach and the Berry Head Hotel. This chamber has a number of inscriptions in the flowstone covering its walls, with some dating back to at least the 1920s. One has a large quantity of loose rock within it, and this chamber also extends upwards to a smaller chamber, underneath which a ladder helps gain access. Īpart from the large main chamber, there are several smaller chambers, which extend downwards into the rock. There are two entrances into the cave: the naturally formed entrance is at the bottom of a sinkhole at the eastern end of the main chamber, and a larger entrance, created by a breach during quarrying in the 19th century, is on the northern side. The cave, which is situated in limestone rock of Devonian age, consists of an east-west-orientated main chamber and several other fissures and smaller chambers. Ash Hole Cavern is reached by an approximately 50-metre walk from the Berry Head Road, through an area of woodland and undergrowth.
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