Beer Quarry Caves

Roman Quarry Caves

Useful Information

Location:	Quarry Ln, Beer, Seaton EX12 3AS. Exeter A3052 towards Dorchester, turn right to Beer, turn right at the first crossing in town. (50.698885, -3.113528)
Open:	APR to OCT 10:30, 12:30, 14:30. Additional tours as required. [2023]
Fee:	Adults GBP 11, Children (5-16) GBP 9, Children (0-4) free, Senior (67+) GBP 9, Family (2+2) GBP 35. Groups (20+): 10 % discount. [2023]
Classification:	Rock Mine Stone Age Flint mine
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	T=7-9 °C
Guided tours:	D=60 min.
Photography:	yes, without tripods
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:	A D Oldham et al (1972): The Concise Caves of Devon, (revised ed 1986)
Address:	Beer Quarry Caves, 15 West Underleys, Beer, Seaton, Devon. EX12 3LJ, Tel: +44-1297-680282. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1920	quarry closed and new quarry opposite opened.
2003	other quarry closed.
1984	opened to the public.

Description

Beer Quarry Caves, named after the nearby town Beer, are a very old quarry, which provided stones for the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey and 24 cathedrals, including those at Exeter, Wells and Winchester. This stone is an oolitic limestone of very good quality. The first quarries at this point date back to Roman times. That is why the caves are sometimes called Roman Quarry Caves. But the first mining in Beer took place much earlier in the stone age. Early man in the Mesolithic, and much more in the Neolithic, was looking for the black flint he needed to make his tools. This flint is found in lines, looking similar to sedimentary layers, in the unlayered white Cretacous chalk of southern Britain. But Beer is the most western outcrop of this formation, so the flint was mined and traded to the west.

Beer Quarry Caves is regularly used as a hibernation site by small numbers of Bechstein's bats (Myotis bechsteinii). This bat is one of the rarest mammals in Britain, recorded from only a small number of sites. And there is an important assemblage of other species too, like Greater and Lesser Horseshoe bats. also Daubenton’s Bat, Natterer’s Bat, and Whiskered Bat.