Cheddar Gorge.

The name Cheddar is known throughout the world as a type of hard cow’s milk cheese, this style of cheese takes its name from the village of Cheddar in Somerset; the village lies at the bottom of the spectacular Cheddar Gorge.

Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills created by floods caused by melting permafrost during the Ice Age, today the greatest depth of the gorge is 449 feet (137 metres). There are caves in the gorge where human remains have been found going back to about 13,000 years ago; in 1903 Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, was found and dated as being about 9,000 years old.

Cheddar Gorge is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and contains a number of species of flora and fauna unique to the gorge. It is a major tourist destination (and a traffic nightmare during the holiday season) and is well known for rock climbing opportunities during an agreed restricted climbing season. Images of the gorge have appeared on a number of rock music albums and the caves were the inspiration for the caves behind Helm’s Deep in J R R Tolkien’s ‘The Two Towers’, part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. – Information from Wikipedia

Today, in a mix of sunshine and rain, we practically had the gorge to ourselves which was nice.

21 October 2014