Fairy Cave Quarry – Grid Reference ST657347753, is situated between the villages of Oakhill and Stoke St Michael. It occupies 29 acres and is sculpted out as two conjoining horseshoes. Huge limestone slabs some 40 meters in height were once part of the ocean floor. Uplift, faulting and folding are all in evidence. Quarrying first started in the 1920s. In 1947 the Mendip Stone Company was granted permission to start production on a commercial basis. In 1963 it was acquired by Hobbs and large scale production started. Excavations cut back into the hillside above St Dunstan’s Well Rising, a Bristol Waterworks abstraction point. Various caves were discovered. However interference with the water resources in the area, meant that permission was no longer granted and production ceased in 1977. The underground source has since been designated a water conservation area by the Wessex Water Authority. The cave systems under the quarry are some of the most beautiful on the Mendips. They were formed by water from an unknown source which Cerberus Speleological Society hope to discover. There are some 136 named climbing routes.