Cresswell Crags

Last Sunday, we went to Cresswell Crags, a limestone gorge in northeastern Derbyshire with a number of caves occupied by Ice Age people.   We had to wear helmets with lights when we went on a tour of Robin Hood’s Cave.  Apparently, there is no evidence that Robin Hood actually used this particular cave, but it is relatively close to Sherwood Forest and he might have used it while hiding from the Sheriff…

Our guide was very good and helped us envision the landscape as it would have been when the glaciers were nearby and mammoth, reindeer, hyenas, and bears roamed the landscape.  There would not have been large trees since the few that could survive the cold would have been growing close to the ground.  We saw some of the flint and bone tools the people would have used as axes, knives, spears, and sewing needles while they followed the seasonal migrations of the reindeer from southern France.

Apparently, when people arrived at the caves after during their long journey, they would send in the kids to make sure that there weren’t any dangerous animals already sheltering in the caves.  People generally lived in the entrances of the caves and stretched animals skins across the openings to provide additional shelter.

We were hoping to be able to see the recently discovered artwork in Church Cave, but it was closed for the winter due to hibernating bats.  We had listened to a program on the BBC about the first discovery of cave art in Britain here and everyone was interested to see how it compared to the art we saw in Rouffignac Cave in France.  We’ll have to return in the spring after the bats have emerged and the new visitor centre is completed.  In the meantime, we might spend some time exploring the virtual ice age.