Striped rock dismissed as natural in 1928 reclassified as UK’s oldest cave art

Scientific dating proves streaks on walls of Bacon Hole, near the Mumbles in south Wales, is Palaeolithic rock art

In 1912, the Guardian reported on the discovery of Palaeolithic rock art on the walls of Bacon Hole, a cave near the Mumbles in south Wales - only for the painted panel's authenticity to be dismissed by 1928.

A series of horizontal bands in red pigment were subsequently deemed no more than a natural phenomenon and the newspaper added an updated statement: It was later established that the red streaks ... turned out to be red oxide mineral seeping through the rock and not prehistoric art."