Kendrick's Cave

Kendrick’s Cave is a small limestone cavern on the southern slope of the Great Orme, a rugged headland above Llandudno. The cave opens onto a steep limestone massif that rises from the Irish Sea, its entrance framed by rough grass and patches of gorse. It lies within Conwy County Borough, on Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 78008284. The site was first brought to notice in 1880 when Thomas Kendrick, a local lapidary, cleared a cave in his garden to enlarge his workshop. Kendrick found decorated bone, flint tools, pierced bear teeth and human remains, all of which he kept in his home before they were later dispersed. The cave’s significance lies in its Mesolithic deposits and the insights they give into early British diets and burial practices. Radiocarbon dating places human activity between 16,410 and 13,140 years before the present. Stable isotope analysis of the human bones shows a diet rich in seafood, including seals and other marine mammals. Unmodified bones suggest the cave served as a burial place rather than a campsite. Genetic work on one individual, Kendricks_074, links him to the Villabruna cluster common among Western Hunter-Gatherers across the British Isles. Visitors approach along a winding path that climbs the southern flank of the Great Orme. The cave mouth is narrow, opening into a single chamber that still contains remnants of Kendrick’s post-Medieval stone structure at its entrance. Inside, the walls show signs of later disturbance but the setting remains dramatic, with views across Llandudno Bay. Nearby Lower Kendrick’s Cave has yielded further Mesolithic and Neolithic finds, reinforcing the area’s archaeological importance.