Sacred & Spiritual
...Pagans & Pilgrimages
The Red Lady of Paviland was discovered in Goat's Hole West in 1823. This Palaeolithic skeleton was buried with a collection of periwinkle shell, mammoth ivory, and bone beads and rings. The grave was covered with red ochre and a mammoth skull was placed on top. Later identified as a 25 year old male, he was interred c. 31,000 BC when the cave edged a low-lying plain 70 miles inland. The Red Lady may have been a shaman – the treatment of his grave is unusually elaborate for the time. Iain Sinclair's novel Black Apples of the Gower is a wondrous journey through mystic Welsh places and includes a quest to reach the cave. Menna Elfyn wrote Y Dyn Unig (‘The Lonely Man’) in homage to the Red Lady. A coastal path approaches the cave at low tide via Foxhole Slade.
Goat's Hall West Cave
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- Region : South West Wales
- Grid Ref : SS 43735 85882
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The Red Lady of Paviland was discovered in Goat's Hole West in 1823. This Palaeolithic skeleton was buried with a collection of periwinkle shell, mammoth ivory, and bone beads and rings. The grave was covered with red ochre and a mammoth skull was placed on top. Later identified as a 25 year old male, he was interred c. 31,000 BC when the cave edged a low-lying plain 70 miles inland. The Red Lady may have been a shaman – the treatment of his grave is unusually elaborate for the time. Iain Sinclair's novel Black Apples of the Gower is a wondrous journey through mystic Welsh places and includes a quest to reach the cave. Menna Elfyn wrote Y Dyn Unig (‘The Lonely Man’) in homage to the Red Lady. A coastal path approaches the cave at low tide via Foxhole Slade.
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