Wogan Cavern Pembroke Castle.

Archaeologists at Pembroke Castle have discovered that a 120,000-year-old hippopotamus once called Wogan Cavern home, proving that even in the Pleistocene, the Welsh weather was apparently good enough for a dip, provided you had the skin of a prehistoric tank.

Because modern Britain clearly hasn't provided enough drama lately, researchers from the University of Aberdeen have decided to dig up the past—literally. They’ve secured five years of funding to poke around Wogan Cavern, a massive limestone cave beneath the birthplace of Henry Tudor. While the rest of us use our basements for broken treadmills and damp boxes of Christmas decorations, it turns out the medieval elite were sitting on top of a prehistoric Airbnb that hosted mammoths, woolly rhinos, and—most impressively—an ancient hippo. Apparently, 120,000 years ago, Pembrokeshire was a tropical paradise, or at least slightly less drizzly than a Tuesday in April.

"Despite the limited work done so far, we can already say that Wogan Cavern is a truly remarkable site... there is no other site like it in Britain – it is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery."

Excavating the Obvious

While the Victorians—bless their top hats—concluded that there was nothing left in the cave worth finding, modern science has once again proven that nineteenth-century confidence is no match for a decent trowel. The recent discovery of hippo bones suggests that Wales was once significantly warmer, a fact that will surely comfort the locals currently shivering in 10°C "spring" weather. The cavern doesn't just boast exotic wildlife; it also contains evidence of early Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, likely lured there by the cave's excellent "open-plan living" and "natural ventilation," which today’s estate agents would probably list for £2,500 a month.

The five-year project aims to use DNA analysis to figure out exactly who was living there and why they left—though, given the eventual arrival of the Tudors, one might argue the neighborhood really went downhill after the mammoths moved out.