Kents Cavern Prehistoric Caves

About

Kents Cavern is one of Europe’s top Stone Age caves, with an extensive labyrinth of spectacular and easily accessible caverns open daily all year. Our entertaining guides will take you on an underground adventure in this award winning attraction, once home to Britain’s earliest humans and Ice Age beasts. Explore fascinating passageways and stunning chambers where you can get up close with spectacular cave formations, around 2 million years old.

There’s loads to do outside the caves, with fun family activities throughout the school holidays. Head to the Woodland Trail and discover our life-size Ice Age statues, including a huge woolly mammoth!

Once you’ve worked up an appetite, pop inside to Firestone Cafe, the home of food and drink at the caves, and enjoy quality food, homemade cakes and refreshing drinks throughout the day. (Top tip: you don’t need to visit the caves to enjoy Firestone Cafe!)

​​​​We have a jam-packed event programme throughout the year, including our nationally rated Santa in the Caves experience, Carols Underground, Cave Cinema and more! Check out our website for more information, prices and how to book: https://www.kents-cavern.co.uk/

History

Kents Cavern is widely known as Britain's Oldest Home due to a discovery of a jaw fragment dated between 41,000-44,000 years old - the oldest find of a modern human in North-West Europe. 

Not only that, Kents Cavern is unique on a global stage too. There are only two caves in the world where three or more different species of humans are found, and only one is open to the general public - us!​​​​​

All of the Ice Age animal statues have a real connection to Kents Cavern: bones and teeth from each have been found in the depths of the caves. These include a woolly mammoth, a cave bear, a scimitar cat, a wolf, an Irish elk, and a wild horse. Today, you can still see a Cave Bear leg and other bones which remain in the cave wall.

Accessibility 

A Visual Guide is now available for Kents Cavern. The Guide is a site specific online tool to help people plan and consider their visit to a new place. The Visual Guide shows anything from functional information like entry prices, parking and facilities, but also highlights elements like sound levels, lighting types, spaces and bespoke features that may cause alarm or confusion.