Hidden Cave in Britain Reveals Prehistoric Hippos, Ice Age Animals, and Evidence of Early Humans Spanning Over 100,000 Years
A spiral staircase inside a Welsh castle leads into a cave that preserves traces of a very different Britain, where hippopotamuses, mammoths, and early humans lived across the same landscape. Now, archaeologists are preparing to return with a five-year excavation that could reshape what we know about the earliest people to reach Britain.
The site, known as Wogan Cavern, lies directly beneath Pembroke Castle in southwest Wales, and recent excavations point to it possibly being one of the most important prehistoric sites ever found in Britain. Small-scale digs between 2021 and 2024 uncovered intact layers of sediment filled with animal bones, stone tools, and traces of repeated human occupation stretching deep into the Ice Age. The new project, led by the University of Aberdeen, aims to scale up those findings and answer questions about who used the cave, when they were there, and how shifting climates shaped their lives.
“There is no other site like it in Britain — it is a once‑in‑a‑lifetime discovery,” said research team lead Rob Dinnis in a press release. “With this new project, we can learn a great deal about our early prehistoric forebears, about how they lived and what their worlds looked like.”
Read More: The Rise (And Fall) Of The Woolly Rhinoceros
Ice Age Animals Discovered in a Prehistoric Cave in Britain
A woolly rhino tooth
(Image Courtesy of University of Aberdeen)
Wogan Cavern has been part of Pembroke Castle for centuries, a site best known as the birthplace of Henry Tudor. In the 13th century, builders constructed a wall across its entrance, sealing it into the structure above. Later visitors could still access the cavern through the castle, but its scientific potential went largely unrecognized.
That view has now been overturned. Early excavations revealed a record of life across shifting Ice Age conditions, including bones from mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, and wild horses. The remains of a hippopotamus were especially interesting, dating to a warmer interglacial period when the region could support such species.
“We have also found hippo bones, which probably date to the last interglacial period, around 120,000 years ago. The site could therefore tell us about how multiple changes in climate and environment affected people living there over 100,000 years or more,” Dinnis said.
Early Humans and Neanderthals May Have Lived in Wogan Cavern
Alongside the animal remains, archaeologists found stone tools that point to repeated human visits over tens of thousands of years. Analysis suggests that some of these tools may have been left by early Homo sapiens during the last Ice Age.
“Not only is there extremely rare evidence for early Homo sapiens, there are also hints at even earlier human occupation, probably by Neanderthals,” Dinnis added.
If confirmed, that would place Wogan Cavern among a small group of sites capable of documenting the transition from Neanderthals to modern humans in Britain — a period that remains much less well understood than in mainland Europe.
Ancient DNA and Climate Clues Found Beneath Pembroke Castle
Excevation in Wogan Cavern
(Image Courtesy of University of Aberdeen)
What makes the site especially valuable is not just what has been found, but how well it has been preserved. Much of the cave’s sediment remains undisturbed, offering an unusually complete archive that researchers can now study using modern techniques.
Because both the bones and the surrounding sediments remain intact, the team expects to extract ancient DNA not just from fossils but directly from the cave floor — a method that can reveal species even when no visible remains are left behind. Combined with high-resolution dating, these techniques could help reconstruct past ecosystems, track rapid climate shifts, and better understand how humans adapted to changing environments.
“Wogan Cavern provides a unique chance to use all the scientific techniques now available to archaeologists,” said Kate Britton, a specialist in science-based archaeology, in the press release.
As excavations resume, the cave beneath Pembroke Castle may prove to be more than an archaeological curiosity. It could become one of Britain’s most important records of prehistoric life.
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