Forming a natural barrier to the north of Somerset are the Mendip Hills, a massive limestone range with its own, special character.
Here on the uplands dry stone walls replace the ryhnes of the Somerset Levels, sheep are grazed for their wool and their meat, and tiny settlements nestle in sharply-incised valleys.
Millions of years of water erosion have created some of Britain's finest cave systems and gorges, of which Cheddar Caves are the most spectacular, while around the foot of the hills lie such gems as Wells, Britain's smallest cathedral city and nearby Glastonbury, world famous now because of its annual music festival, but also the site of a great ruined medieval abbey and the unmistakable Glastonbury Tor.
Other beautiful features of Somerset worth visiting include: Glastonbury, Dunster, Exmoor, the Blackdown Hills and the Brendon Hills, the Lorna Doone Secret Valley, Forde Abbey, Porlock and Porlock Weir, the Quantock Hills, the Somerset Levels and Wells. |
