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| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
  Location within Somerset | |
| Location | Somerset |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | ST540505 |
| Coordinates | 51°15′06″N2°39′38″W / 51.2518°N 2.6605°W /51.2518; -2.6605 |
| Interest | Geological |
| Area | 67.6 hectares (0.676 km2; 0.261 sq mi) |
| Notification | 1965 (1965) |
| Natural England website | |
Priddy Caves (grid referenceST540505) is an Area: 67.6hectare (167.0 acre)geological Site of Special Scientific Interest atPriddy in theMendip Hills,Somerset,notified in 1965.
The entrance toSt Cuthbert's Swallet is incorporated in the adjacentPriddy Pools SSSI. The Priddy Caves System contains about 16 km of surveyed cave passages divided between a number of major and minor networks. All the caves aresink 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 weakness in the rocks.
The three largest networks,Swildon's Hole,St Cuthbert's Swallet andEastwater Cavern exceed 100 metres in depth.Swildon's Hole is a world-famous example of a shallow depthphreatic cave, which shows a very well developeddendritic pattern of drainage and contains extensiveclastic andstalagmite fills.Hunter's Hole is an excellent example of a shaft complex draining a closed depression. This cave differs from the others at Priddy in apparently not having formed as a stream swallet. Cave sediments found within the systems, together with the information which can be deduced from the physical form of the caves, providegeologists with the means to obtain a better understanding of the geological evolution of southern Britain during theice ages.[1]