Minchin Hole is located at the base of a spectacular ravine in the steep cliffs west of Pwll-Du. The R.C.A.H.M. record that the entrance is 10m high and 5m wide and that the cave extends for 50m into the rock where it widens to a maximum of 20m (1976 Glamorgan Inventory No 12). The sediments in the front part of the cave have been greatly disturbed by various excavations but the bulk of the depoits remain apparently intact.
The first published excavation occurred in 1850 when Lieut-Col E.R. Wood found rhinoceros and elephant bones both indicative of an interstadial or warm period and woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros bones both belonging to the last glaciation (Falconer 1868, 507-10, Sutcliffe 1981 1-17). Further animal bones were discovered during the next major excavation which was conducted by N.T. George in 1931 (George 1932). Mr J.G. Rutter, excavating between 1949 and 1956, discovered three distinct hearth areas apparently occupied by native peoples during the first five centuries B.C. (R.C.A.H.M 1976 No 12). Recent excavations carried out by A.J. Sutcliffe of the British Museum (Natural History) and D.Q. Bowen (University of London) in the 1970's and early 1980's have concentrated on the raised beach deposits in the cave with a view to analysing Upper Pleistocene sea level changes and climatic alterations.

John Latham RCAHMW 14 April 2015 (after NT report by Emma Plunkett Dillon ca 1988)