Expect stalactites to drip water on your head and temperatures to dip to 14°C in these atmospheric caves. Hour-long guided tours lead through a maze of uneven rusty-red tunnels linking rock galleries, arcades and chambers, some of which soar to impressive heights.
Bones found here revealed evidence of Torbay's prehistoric animals – cave lions, giant mammoths and sabre-tooth cats. There are also hyena lairs and cave-bear dens; look out for the skull of Ursus deningeri (Deninger's bear) embedded in the rock in the Water Gallery.
Kents Cavern is also the oldest recognisable human dwelling in Britain. Flint hand axes unearthed here have been dated to 450,000 years old, while a 35,000-year-old jawbone uncovered here is the oldest directly dated human bone in Britain.
