Due to the fact that tourist numbers have dropped through the show caves from 400,000 a year in the 1980s to 150,000, in 2013 Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth who runs the Longleat estate on behalf of the family trust, proposed installation of a 600 meters 18-gondola cable car estimated to cost £10M, taking visitors from the entrance area to the caves directly to the top of the southside cliffs.