Visited 17th July 2003: I was supposed to be on a work jolly to Caldey Island, but when we arrived in Tenby we found that boats weren't sailing (no explanation). After a few hours in the pub, I made my excuses and walked south west out of town to find Hoyle's Mouth Cave and Little Hoyle Cave.
First off, I'd recommend against visiting either of these sites in the summer, because the foliage is thick, and you will get stung by stinging nettles! There's no signposting to Hoyle's Mouth Cave, so a GPS is handy (even then you'll be guessing). There are a lot of tracks through the woodland, and eventually I hit upon one that went up to the cave.
I don't usually go for pre-Neolithic sites, but circumstances brought me here, and it was pleasantly surprising. I hadn't brought a torch with me, so I didn't venture too far into the cave. Sitting in the entrance looking out over the damp vegetation that I'd struggled up through, I felt rather sublime. The peace and quiet was lovely. The cave is obviously used by local kids, because there were the remains of a camp fire in the entrance. What a great den!
Mr. P. H. Gosse, in his interesting work, Tenby: a Sea-side Holiday, 1856, p. 80, informs us that" the people talk a good deal of a curious cavern called Hoyle's Mouth, about which they have some strange notions. It opens at the end of a long lime-stone hill, or range of hills, about a mile inland; and the popular legend is, that it is the termination of a natural subterranean chasm which communicates with the great cave called, the Hogan, under Pembroke Castle, some eight miles distant.
It was once traversed, they say, by a dog, which, entering at one end, emerged from the other, with all his hair rubbed off! A gentleman is said to have penetrated to a considerable distance, and found ' fine rooms.' But the vulgar are very averse to exploring even its mouth, on the ostensible ground that a boar,' a wild pig,' dwells there; I fear, however, that there are more unsubstantial terrors in the case. I walked out to look at it; and if I found no dragons, nor giants, nor pigs, I enjoyed a most delightful rural walk."
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Posted by Kammer
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