Wookey Hole Caves to 1874 by William Boyd Dawkins, who moved to Somerset to study classics with the vicar of Wookey. On hearing of the discovery of bones by local workmen he led excavations in the area of the hyena den. His work led to the discovery of the first evidence for the use by Palaeolithic man in the Caves of the Mendip Hills. Middle Paleolithic tools have been found in association with butchered bones with a radiocarbon age of around 41,000 years. Herbert E. Balch continued the work from 1904 to 1914, when he led excavations of the entrance passage (1904–1915), Witch's
Ebbor Gorge by the National Trust, and managed by Natural England as a National Nature Reserve. The land was donated to the National Trust by Mrs G.W. Hodgkinson, in 1967, in memory of Winston Churchill. The site was purchased in 1931 by Wookey Hole Caves Ltd. The site is close to Wookey Hole village and caves and offers views across the Somerset Levels to Glastonbury Tor and beyond. There are three marked trails of varying lengths around the steeply wooded gorge, the longest being long, the shortest of which is suitable for wheelchair users. Because of the ecology of the area was