Priddy Caves Priddy Caves Priddy Caves () is an Area: 67.6 hectare (167.0 acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Priddy in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, notified in 1965. The entrance to St Cuthbert's Swallet is incorporated in the adjacent Priddy Pools SSSI. The Priddy Caves System contains about 16km of surveyed cave passages divided between a number of major and minor networks. All the caves are sink hole systems, fed by sink holes at the ground surface. In all the caves the detailed disposition and form of the passages can be seen clearly to have followed marked lines of natural
Wookey Hole Caves SSSI designation, which would restrict what farmers and other landowners were allowed to do, would cover the entire catchment area. This was opposed as being too restrictive and difficult to enforce. It was argued that agricultural uses of fields which were not directly in contact with cave entrances would have little detrimental effect on the caves themselves. There was also debate about which caves and cave features should be considered "important". The final settlement resulted in a smaller area being designated and many agricultural practices being removed from the list of proscribed "Potentially Damaging Operations". The entrance weir and sluice