England Guide
Bristol, Bath and Somerset
Cheddar Gorge
The rather plain village of Cheddar has given its name to Britain's best-known cheese – most of it now mass-produced far from here – and is also renowned for the Cheddar Gorge, lying beyond the neighbourhood of Tweentown about a mile to the north.
Cutting a jagged gash across the Mendip Hills, the limestone gorge is an amazing geological phenomenon, though its natural beauty is undermined by the minor road running through it and by the Lower Gorge's mile of shops and parking areas. Few trippers venture further than the first few curves of the gorge, which admittedly holds its most dramatic scenery, though each turn of the two-mile length presents new, sometimes startling vistas, which can be viewed from the open-top bus that plies up and down between March and October (free to Cheddar Caves ticket-holders). At its narrowest the road squeezes between cliffs towering almost five hundred feet above. A flight of 274 steps ascend Jacob's Ladder to a cliff-top viewpoint looking towards Glastonbury Tor, with occasional glimpses of Exmoor and the sea – or you can reach the same spot more easily via the narrow lane winding up behind the cliffs. There's a circular three-mile cliff-top Gorge Walk, and you can branch off along marked paths to such secluded spots as Black Rock, just two miles from Cheddar, or Black Down, at 1067ft the Mendips' highest point.
Beneath the gorge, the Cheddar Caves (daily: July & Aug 10am–5.30pm; Sept– June 10.30am–5pm; £14) were scooped out by underground rivers in the wake of the Ice Age, and subsequently occupied by primitive communities. Today the caves are floodlit to pick out the subtle tones of the rock, and the array of tortuous rock formations that resemble organ pipes, waterfalls and giant birds.
Buses run to Cheddar from Wells, 8 miles away. Among Cheddar's B&Bs, try Chedwell Cottage, Redcliffe St ( 
01934/743268; no credit cards; Price: ₤41-50). There's a youth hostel off the Hayes ( 0845/371 9730, www.yha.org.uk ; dorm bed from £11.95), and a central campsite, Cheddar Bridge Park, opposite the church on Draycott Road ( 01934/743048, 
www.cheddarbridge.co.uk ; no under-18s; closed Dec– Feb).