Attraction in Somerset

Dunster Castle Somerset is one of those places that quietly captures the character of the British landscape. The surrounding landscape changes beautifully with the seasons, giving the location a slightly different character throughout the year. Photographers often appreciate the changing light conditions, particularly during sunrise and sunset. Local walking routes and nearby viewpoints make it a rewarding place to explore on foot. The surrounding landscape provides a strong sense of place that helps visitors understand the character of the region. Wandering around the area reveals small details that are easily missed when simply passing through. The location works particularly well as part of a wider scenic journey through the region. Visitors often find themselves spending far longer here than expected because the scenery invites slow exploration. Even during busier periods there are usually quieter corners where the scenery can be appreciated at a slower pace. Many visitors return repeatedly because each visit offers something slightly different. The atmosphere can shift dramatically depending on the weather, with bright sunlight revealing colours and textures that are easy to miss on overcast days. Because of its setting, Dunster Castle Somerset often becomes one of the highlights of a day spent exploring the surrounding region.

Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset is one of the most historically significant and most atmospheric monastic ruins in England, the remains of what was once the wealthiest and most prestigious Benedictine abbey in medieval Britain, a house claiming foundations by Joseph of Arimathea himself and the burial of King Arthur and his queen Guinevere, traditions that made it one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in Christendom and the focus of a mythology of extraordinary power that persists to the present day. The ruins of the great abbey church and the surviving domestic buildings stand in extensive grounds in the centre of Glastonbury town. The abbey's claim to be the oldest Christian foundation in Britain rested on the tradition that Joseph of Arimathea, who according to the Gospels donated his tomb for Christ's burial, travelled to Britain after the Crucifixion and established the first Christian community at Glastonbury. This tradition cannot be historically verified but was accepted as genuine throughout the medieval period and gave Glastonbury an authority in the English church second only to Canterbury. The discovery of the supposed tomb of Arthur and Guinevere in the abbey grounds in 1191, suspiciously opportune following the destruction of an earlier church by fire in 1184, reinforced the abbey's claims and stimulated a surge of pilgrimage and royal patronage. The ruins of the Lady Chapel, the oldest surviving structure on the site, retain their Romanesque arcading and decorative stonework in a form that gives a powerful impression of the quality of the twelfth-century building before Henry VIII's dissolution destroyed what was then the largest and most elaborate monastic complex in England. The Abbot's Kitchen, a remarkable fourteenth-century octagonal building surviving almost intact, is one of the finest medieval domestic buildings of its type in Britain.

Montacute House in Somerset is one of the most beautiful and most completely preserved Elizabethan country houses in England, built for Edward Phelips around 1600. The combination of the extraordinary Ham stone facade, the long gallery, the collection of Tudor and Jacobean portraits from the National Portrait Gallery and the formal garden creates one of the National Trust's most satisfying and most completely realised historic house experiences. The facade, built from the warm golden Ham stone of Somerset, is the finest and most accomplished Elizabethan domestic architectural facade in England. Its symmetrical composition of gabled bays, mullioned windows, heraldic carvings and the extraordinary figures of the Nine Worthies above the east porch combines all elements of the mature Elizabethan decorative vocabulary in a single breathtaking composition. The long gallery on the top floor, 52 metres long and the longest surviving Elizabethan long gallery in England, houses the National Portrait Gallery's Tudor and Jacobean portraits in a space whose architectural quality and historical period perfectly match the paintings displayed within it.

Wookey Hole Caves near Wells in Somerset are a complex of limestone caverns carved by the River Axe in the southern foothills of the Mendip Hills, a cave system of considerable size and geological interest that has been visited as a tourist attraction since the nineteenth century and combines the natural cave formations with a Victorian paper mill and an entertaining collection of seaside and fairground attractions that make it one of the most varied heritage attractions in Somerset. The Witch of Wookey, a stalagmite formation in the first chamber that resembles a crouching figure, provides the legendary dimension to one of the largest publicly accessible cave systems in Britain. The caves were occupied by humans from at least the Iron Age, the bones and artefacts found in the cave deposits providing evidence of use over thousands of years. The excavations of Herbert Balch in the early twentieth century recovered an extraordinary collection of objects from the cave floor deposits, now in the Wells Museum, that illuminate the Iron Age and Romano-British occupation of the caves and their use as a ritual or settlement site over an extended period. The caves are formed in the Carboniferous limestone of the Mendips, the River Axe having carved its course underground through the rock before emerging at the show cave entrance. The underground river still flows through the cave chambers and the combination of the cave geology, the underground river and the stalactite and stalagmite formations provides a complete limestone cave experience of considerable quality.