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Creswell Crags is an enclosed limestone Canyon on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England, near the villages of Creswell and Whitwell. The in the ravine contain several that were occupied during the last ice age, between around 43,000 and 10,000 years ago. Its caves contain the northernmost
The Caves|Creswell Crags|retrieved on 5 May 2025 Creswell Crags forms part of the
Local Area - Exploring Further|Creswell Crags|retrieved on 5 May 2025 It is a Scheduled monument and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The evidence of occupation found in the rich series of sediments that accumulated over many thousands of years is regarded as internationally unique in demonstrating how prehistoric people managed to live at the extreme northernmost limits of their territory during the Late Pleistocene period.
The caves contain occupation layers with evidence of flint tools from the Mousterian, proto-Solutrean, Creswellian and Maglemosian cultures. They were seasonally occupied by groups of people during the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. Evidence of Neolithic, Bronze Age, Roman Britain and post-medieval activity has also been found there. There is evidence of Neanderthal occupation 50,000–60,000 years ago, a brief Gravettian occupation around 32,000 years ago and use of all the main caves during the Magdalenian around 14,000 years ago. The dates given in the source are 28,000 14C years ago for the Gravettian and 12,500 to 12,200 14C years ago for the Magdalenian. The 14C years have been adjusted to give calendar ('real') years.
The Caves| Creswell Crags|retrieved on 4 May 2025
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A bone engraved with a horse's head and other worked bone items along with the remains of a variety of prehistoric animals have been found in excavations since 1876. The "Ochre Horse" was found on 29 June 1876 at the back of the western chamber in the Robin Hood Cave. In 2003, the Ochre Horse was estimated to be between 11,000 and 13,000 years old.
A canine tooth of the sabertooth cat Homotherium was also excavated from Robin Hood Cave in 1876, one of only a handful of finds of this cat known from Britain. The tooth may have been transported into the cave by humans as is suggested for the canine saber teeth of Homotherium found in Kents Cavern in Devon. Other remains found in Robin Hood Cave, which dates to the primarily to the Last Glacial Period (though spanning from shortly prior to the Last Glacial Period to historical times), includes those of cave hyenas, Wolf, Red fox, brown bears, woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, wild horse, wild boar, reindeer and red deer. Evidence has been found for the butchery of mountain hare by humans in the cave. At Pinhole Cave, animals found there (that are not found in Robin Hood's cave) include Irish elk, Panthera spelaea, steppe bison and Russet ground squirrels.
In Mother Grundy's Parlour, in layers dating to the Last Interglacial (130-115,000 years ago), when Britain had a similar temperate climate and forested landscape to modern times, remains of hippopotamus and the extinct narrow-nosed rhinoceros have been found.Bestwick, J. and Smith, A.S. 2015. Creswell Crags fossil material in the Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, UK. The Geological Curator 10 (4): 181- 192.
Thin layers of calcium carbonate flowstone overlaying some of the engravings were dated using the uranium-series disequilibrium method, which showed the oldest of these flowstones to have formed at least 12,800 years ago. This provides a minimum age for the underlying engraving. The scientists and archaeologists concluded that it was most likely the engravings were contemporary with evidence for occupation at the site during the late glacial interstadial around 13,000–15,000 years ago. Most of the engravings are found in Church Hole Cave on the Nottinghamshire side of the gorge. Since this discovery, however, an engraved reindeer from a cave on the Gower Peninsula has yielded two minimum dates (through uranium-series dating) of 12,572 years BP and 14,505 years BP.
Not all of the figures identified as prehistoric art are in fact human made. An example given by archaeologists Paul Bahn and Paul Pettitt is the 'horse-head', Which they say is "highly visible and resembles a heavily maned horse-head... lacks any trace of work: it is a combination of erosion, black stains for the head, and natural burrow cast reliefs for the mane." Others are a 'bison-head' which they think may be natural and a 'bear' image which "lacks any evidence of human work." Notwithstanding they believe that more figures may be discovered in the future. (2025). 9781848020252, English Heritage. ISBN 9781848020252
The site was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 documentaries Unearthing Mysteries, Nature and Drawings on the Wall, and featured in the 2005 BBC Two television programme Seven Natural Wonders, as one of the wonders of the Midlands. In the Drawings on the Wall (Episode 1) Dr Paul Pettitt was interviewed about the so-called 'naked ladies'
10 historical sites in and around Nottinghamshire that have featured on screen|2025|Worksop Guardian|retrieved on 5 May 2025
|Creswell Crags|Food and Drink|retrieved on 5 May 2025
Creswell Crags first applied for World Heritage Site status in 1986, but was unsuccessful. Since then further research and development has been carried out and, in 2011, it was again put forward for consideration. In 2012 it was added to the United Kingdom's 'tentative list' – an essential prerequisite to formal nomination, evaluation and potential inscription as a World Heritage Site. The Tentative List identifies the universal outstanding value of Creswell Crags as being:
- The outstanding landscape of a narrow limestone gorge containing a complex of caves having long-intact palaeoenvironmental cave and gorge sediment sequences, containing rich cultural archaeological remains as well as diverse animal bone, plant macro- and micro-fossil assemblages
- In situ Palaeolithic rock art on the walls and ceilings of caves, dated directly to 13,000 years ago, providing direct cultural associations with Late Magdalenian human groups operating at extreme northern latitudes
In addition, Creswell Crags' significance has been enhanced by the discovery of a number of pieces of portable art made of engraved bone – the UK's only known figurative Ice Age art – as well as assemblages of bone, stone and ivory tools.
Creswell Crags|World Heritage Sites Tentative List|retrieved on 4 May 2025
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