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| Image: View down the gorge showing the limestone rocks and caves on one side. |
| Location: |
Welbeck, Nottinghamshire.
B6042 (Crags Road) between the A616 and A60, 2km east of Creswell village.
 Location by UK Streetmap
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| Open: |
Visitor Centre: FEB-OCT daily 10:30-16:30, NOV-JAN Sun 10:30-16:30 Caves: school holidays daily 11:30, 13:30, 15. SEP-OCT Sat, Sun 11:30, 13:30, 15. NOV-JAN Sun 11:30, 14. |
| Fee: |
Visitor Center: free Caves: Adults £2.75, Children £2, Family (2+2) £8. Parking: a car £1. (Donation) |
| Classification: |
 Karst cave.
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| Light: | electric. |
| Dimension: | |
| Guided tours: | |
| Bibliography: |
Anon (ND 2002?):
Creswell Crags,
Visitor Guide by oakleaf-graphics. 16 pp, many colour photos. SB Anon (ND, 2002?): Walking in the Creswell Limestone Area, Creswell Heritage Trust, 12pp. Five walks, five maps. SB W Boyd Dawkins (1880): Early Man in Britain, 537 pp 168 figs. This is the companion volume to Cave Hunting, and goes into greater detail. There are good accounts of the caves of Cresswell Crag, Castleton [Derbyshire] Pont Newydd [North Wales], the caves of Somerset, S Devon etc. A scarce item. Original publishers binding. Picture spine gold block etc. Some wear, on spine o/w G. HB Tony Waltham (1984): Caves, crags and gorges, A guide to limestone country in England and Wales. Creswell Crags pp 245 - 249 |
| Address: |
Creswell Crags Visitor Centre, Crags Road, Welbeck, near Worksop, Nottinghamshire S80 3LH, Tel: +44-1909-720378
E-mail: |
| Last update: | $Date: 2008/07/01 20:24:02 $ |
| 1870 | exploration of Creswell Crags began. | |
| APR-2003 | three archeologists discovered prehistoric cave art in Church Cave. |
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| Image: the footpath and Boat Cave, which is closed by a gate. |
Creswell Crags is an ensemble of several small caves along both sides of a small valley. The valley was carved out of limestone by a small river. So numerous crags, mostly small and narrow caves were cut through. The gorge is about 500m long and the gorge floor is occupied by a large lake.
A footpath from the visitor center at the upper end of the gorge leads along the limestone cliffs. At the lower end the path crosses the road and leads back up on the other side. So it is possible to visit all the caves known as Robin Hood's cave, Churchhole, Grundy's Parlour or Pin Hole. The caves are protected by metal grills to preserve them, but the grills allow at last a glimpse of how the caves look like. There are tours from the Visitors Center into Robin Hood's cave. But there are only very few plätze
This caves and the hidden valley were shelter to Ice Age man. The excavations in the last century showed remains of Neanderthals and modern hunters, Ice Age animals and rare engravings. Unfortunately the Victorian archaeologists did not use the modern techniques for excavation and documentation. So on their hunt for spectacular finds many informations, the crags could have provided are now destroyed forever.
The oldest remains in Creswell Crags are 45,000 years old Neandertal stone tools. It is the most northerly place in the world with Neandertal remains. The idea is, that Neandertals, living in southern England and northern France, walked far north, to follow the deer herds in summer. They stayed here only a few weeks until they had to go back south. The whole journey was possible only because of the much lower sea level. The channel between England and France was dry during most of the Ice Age. But most of the visits are dated to have happened much later, between 30,000 and 12,000 years ago.
This site is very important for archaeology. One fact proofing this is the word Creswellian. The Creswellian is a Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) culture of Britain, named after the locus typicus (="type site") at Creswell Crags.
Later this place was visited by modern man, for example they were used during the middle ages. But the story, that Robin Hood found shelter in this caves, is just a legend. No Robin-Hood-remains were found during excavation....
In April 2003 a new discovery was made, the first discovery of Palaeolithic cave art in Britain. In Church Cave three archeologists, Paul G. Bahn, Paul Pettitt and Sergio Ripoll, discovered engravings which seem to be Paleolithic. So far neither cave paintings nor engravings were known in Britain. Nevertheless, there were figurines and other portable art of this period. Engravings are extremely difficult to see, you need a trained eye and advantageous lighting. They are not colourful, and only visible if the shadow falls from the right direction. Nobody had combed the British caves in search of engravings, so the three scientists made a survey and discovered engraved marks in a number of caves. Here at Creswell Crags, they found both figurative and non-figurative engravings of the period. They are now systematically investigated and the results will be published in a while.
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