Stretching down from the hamlet of Elmton, Derbyshire, is a broad valley which runs past the village of Whaley and on to Nether Langwith. Excavations have taken place at several locations in the valley directed by Leslie Armstrong and Arthur Court between 1937 and 1949 and later by Jeffrey Radley.

Who used the sites in the Whaley Valley?
Artefacts found at Whaley Shelter Nº2 show that people were using this site from the Late Upper Palaeolithic to the Roman period. The skull of a woman from the site, once thought to be Palaeolithic, is now known to be Early Bronze Age in date and may be part of a tradition of using caves and rockshelters in the area for burial.

Which animals lived in the area?
The presence of shed antlers from female reindeer excavated from Whaley Shelter Nº2 shows that the Whaley valley might have been a calving ground during the Last Ice Age at various times between 45,000 and 38,000 years ago.