Caves of the Mendip Hills The caves are recorded in the Mendip Cave Registry and Archive. The caves which are easily accessible to the public are at Cheddar Gorge and Wookey Hole, but the vast majority of the caves require specialist equipment and knowledge. Many of the caves are gated and operate leader systems in an attempt to reduce the damage caused when the caves are visited. Local caving groups organise trips and continue to discover new caverns. Some estimates put the number of cavers active on the Mendip Hills over a busy weekend at more than 500. Attempts made in the Mendip Hills to
Wookey Hole Caves system that is formed within the Dolomitic Conglomerate is characterised by shallow loops linking low bedding chambers, or tall narrow passages, known as 'rifts', developed by phreatic solutional enlargement of fractured rifts. The streamway in the inner part of the system formed within the limestone is characterised by deep phreatic loops reaching depths as much as , with the water flowing down-dip along bedding planes and rising up enlarged joints. In the far reaches of the cave the passages descend to below sea level. Witcombe suggests that the name "Wookey" is derived from the Celtic (Welsh) for 'cave', ""Ogo"" or