Pembroke Castle's Wogan Cavern reveals prehistoric secrets

A major new archaeological project will delve deeper into a cave hidden beneath Pembroke Castle, where preliminary excavations have already produced some of the most extraordinary prehistoric finds in Britain.
Calleva Foundation funding has been awarded to the University of Aberdeen to lead a five-year exploration of Wogan Cavern at Pembroke Castle – home to remarkable evidence of early prehistoric humans as well as important animal remains, including a hippopotamus which roamed Wales 120,000 years ago.
The project will further be supported by the Pembroke Castle Trust, who are expanding their team and developing the castle space to ensure that the finds from Wogan Cavern will be curated and kept in Pembroke.
The enormous cave, accessed down a spiral staircase from the castle, was thought to have been dug out by the Victorians and it was long assumed that little archaeological material remained.
But small‑scale excavations between 2021 and 2024 uncovered abundant evidence for human and animal visits over more than 100,000 years, with much of Wogan Cavern’s sediments remaining intact. This, say researchers, means the cave is rapidly emerging as one of the most important prehistoric archives in Britain.
Dr Rob Dinnis, who directed the initial excavations, will lead the project for the University of Aberdeen.
The new funding will allow archaeologists to scale up their early work, which has already revealed bones of mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer and wild horse, as well as stone tools and evidence of human occupation from multiple periods.
©Video: BBC Wales