Cheddar Gorge & Caves

Date of visit 19/08/24

We have been to Somerset many times over the last few years, but had never visited Cheddar and the gorge before. Having booked a return visit to the wonderful Rookery Lodge, near Langport, we thought this would be an ideal opportunity to rectify that!

The village of Cheddar, described as a large village, sits at the bottom of the gorge, which itself is believed to have been created by collapsing caverns, formed by underground water sources. One of these water sources survives today and comes out of the hillside to form the River Yeo, which flows through the village.

Clearly the people of Cheddar are very proud of their history and take every opportunity to show it off. They do like to be known for more than just cheese, but the presence of it is pretty much everywhere, with cheese shops and even cheese flavoured ice cream available - which I passed on! If you visit Gough's cave you will even see cheese stacked up in the cave, maturing!

The first thing we discovered when we reached the Gorge was that parking is extremely limited in town itself. We drove down the Gorge, ignoring all the parking beside the cliffs, before reaching town itself, where we discovered we couldn't find a paid for or disabled space!

A quick about turn took us back up the hill until we found a space in the last roadside car park. Disabled parking was free here, when displaying a valid blue badge. We then had the rather difficult walk back downhill. There are no paths going back into town, so most of the walking has to be done on the road itself. Fortunately most of the drivers using the area are aware of the road walkers, and adjust their speed accordingly. There are the odds places where you can walk slightly off road, but these areas are generally over quite rough ground, so wouldn't be suitable for those with mobility issues.

Having Little One firmly tethered to me I felt quite confident we would manage the journey down. I must admit we sometimes get looks from people, like "why is that child on a lead", but we know it is for his safety. He walks really well when attached to me by his wrist strap, and to be honest, most of the time I hold his hand while we walk, so he is rarely being "dragged" along behind us. He is a very willing walker, just that if I took him off his attachment for even a second, he would be an even more willing RUNNER!

We got to town and figured out where the entry was to Gough's Cave. I had pre-booked tickets for our visit to Cheddar, with the soul intention of "doing" the caves, as I thought this would be an interesting experience, for us, and for Little One, as he had never been underground like this before.

We were able to get free carer's tickets, with the usual request to provide evidence at the point of entry. I have Access cards for Little One and my granddaughter who lives with us, and always carry these with me. I usually back this up with copies of their most recent DLA/PIP awards, neatly tucked into my man bag, just in case the Access card isn't accepted.

We were given our tickets, which then gives you access to all the attractions in Cheddar. The cheddar Gorge Access Statement does comment that "Those with severely restricted mobility or who are wheelchair dependent will find much of Cheddar Gorge & Caves inaccessible including the caves, the Cliff-top Walk and the Lookout Tower."

As disappointing as this might be, there are times that there has to be an acceptance that not everything can be equally accessible, particularly natural areas like the caves.

I would like to say at this point, that my photos don't really do justice to the amazing structures and scenes that centuries of dripping water have created. The low light in the caves made it quite difficult to get really good pictures, but hopefully the pictures give an idea of what it was like underground!

As I had said previously, this was a first for Little One, we didn't know how he would react, firstly to the dark and to the slightly claustrophobic nature of the caves. Well, we shouldn't have worried as he loved it. We probably shouldn't have worried about the light level, as he quite happily sleeps in a pitch black room, with his duvet covering his head - so he clearly isn't frightened of the dark.

The caves weren't as enclosing as I feared, with most of the passageways being quite wide. There is some restricted headroom in places, but then I am a six footer, so probably noticed it more than others.

The other thing that we have encountered with Little One, is that he is able to pick up the acoustics of places we visit very easily. He seems to be able to sense when there is an echo present, and has demonstrated this when we have visited other places, or even just going into a lift, where the sound changes. I find this particularly interesting as he is moderately deaf and should wear hearing aids, but won't tolerate them!

Anyway, having realised there was an echo in the caves he suddenly became quite vocal. While Little One is non-verbal he is very, very capable of making himself known in his own, unique way.

Here he is ably demonstrating what he can do. The squeak on the end sounds like a bat noise, which is quite apt, as we did see a bat flying around in the caves. It was at this point that my wife decided to test the acoustics too, shrieking when a bat flew towards us and away on a couple of occasions! If you're not keen on flying creatures take note!

As said earlier, my pictures don't do credit to the wonder of the caves. At times it is like you are in a cathedral of melting wax, or other areas where it looks like a bath has overflowed and frozen. The scenes are amazing and while Little One doesn't appear to take a great deal of notice of his surroundings, he was more than happy to walk through the changing vistas and tunnels.

Having finished in Gough's Cave we wandered further down the hill, towards Cox's Cave. Cheddar is a strange mixture of quaint and very tourist village, with various eating and watering holes roadside and also the obligatory cider shops and ice cream parlours selling cheese flavoured ice cream... the paths can be quite narrow at times and a bit awkward when walking a child on a wrist strap, over the last few years I have got used to spotting the potential hazards before they arrives, so it wasn't too bad.

We popped into a few of the gift type shops. Here is another area I have to have my wits about me. If I had a pound for every time my wife has told me to "watch his hands" when we enter a shop, then I would probably be a very wealthy man. Little One likes touching things, so I have to be particularly aware of breakables.

My wife was doubly happy as she managed to find a Christmas shop - yes, it can be Christmas all year round in Cheddar!

Shopping done we decided to visit Cox's Cave next. While this is another cave, the experience is very different to Gough's cave. On this occasion you are, sent into the cave in a small group, ours was a group of eight, and lead round the caves by a visual display, with the character Yeo leading you. This visual, light display is quite charming, but being led around the cave didn't feel quite the same as making your own way, exploring, like you could in Gough's. Having said that, it was worth doing, although Little One did get a little restless at times, as he didn't understand why we had to stop and watch a short video every minute or so.

The video clips, projected onto the cave walls, were good and very informative, explaining how the caves were formed through the "power of water", but they just went over Little One's head a little - he just wanted to explore!

There are several other attractions included in the ticket price. We did consider tackling Jacob's Ladder, but felt the number of steps (274 apparently) up to the Lookout Tower might just be a bit too much. Looking up the hillside of Jacob's Ladder was like watching a procession of ants going up the hillside as people trudged up the many steps! I think we probably made the right choice - for us!

As said though, there are other more sedate attractions available, all included in the one ticket price! Spend the whole day here and you can really get your money's worth.

This was only ever intended to be a brief stop on our way to our holiday accommodation, so after a couple of hours we began the ascent back to our car. Again the lack of paths could be an issue, but we have become quite expert at taking care in hazardous locations.

As a location to visit I think we will definitely come back, when in the area next. I would probably aim to arrive either earlier in the day or later in the afternoon, when there were a lot more parking spaces available. Turning up pretty much bang on lunch time probably wasn't the smartest move, but definitely something worth considering if parking nearer to town is going to be a necessity for you.