Things to do in BanwellLocal Area

There are many attractions local to Banwell Castle, here are a few.

The Mendip HillsThe Mendip Hills

Seen from the Castle grounds they are a range of limestone hills situated to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the Hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Avon valley to the north. The hills give their name to the local government district of Mendip, which covers most of the area.

The hills are largely carboniferous limestone, which is quarried at several sites. The higher, western, part of the Hills has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which gives it the same level of protection as a national park. The AONB is 200 km˛ (80 sq mi). The Mendip Hills AONB Service and Somerset County Council's outdoor education centre is at the Charterhouse Centre near Blagdon.

The Mendips are home to a wide range of outdoor sports and leisure activities, many based on the particular geology of the area. It is recognised as a national centre for caving and cave diving. In addition to climbing and abseiling, the area is popular with hill walkers and those interested in natural history.

Photo of the Mendip Hills Lanscape

The Mendip Landscape photographed on 05-JUL-2004. The gently undulating Carboniferous Limestone plateau is the central feature of the AONB area and the western end of that plateau can be seen in the photograph as the Mendip Hills drop down to the Severn estuary. © English Heritage. NMR

Cheddar GorgeChedder Gorge

The Gorge, near the village of Cheddar in the Mendip Hills, is the largest in the United Kingdom.

The gorge is part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest now called Cheddar Complex. The rocks of the gorge are Carboniferous Limestone, which contain ooliths and fossil debris, on top of Old Red Sandstone. The maximum depth of the gorge is 113 m (371 ft). Much of the gorge has no river until the underground Cheddar Yeo emerges in the lower part from Gough's Cave. The river is used to supply the nearby Cheddar Reservoir via a 54 inches (137.2 cm) water pipe that takes water just upstream from the Rotary Club Sensory Garden.

The gorge has a near-vertical cliff-face to the south, and steep grassy slopes to the north. It shows characteristics of a river-formed valley. The lack of water is expected since limestone is permeable. The gorge was formed in the ice age when any water in the limestone froze, making the rock temporarily impermeable. Torrents of melt water gradually eroded the rock away to form the gorge. After the ice age the limestone thawed and became permeable again, so that any water on the surface seeped into the rock, leaving behind a dry valley. Evidence for Variscan orogeny is seen in the sheared rock and cleaved shales. Dolomitic Conglomerate can be seen in the bottom of an ancient Triassic valley.

The gorge is the site of the Cheddar Caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years old, was found in 1903. Older remains from the Upper Late Palaeolithic era (12,000–13,000 years ago) have been found. The caves, produced by the activity of an underground river, contain stalactites and stalagmites.