Editor Pick
Ebbor Gorge
- May 15, 2006
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Krys T from Somerset, United Kingdom
Ebbor Gorge is up in the hills near Wookey Hole, and is owned variously by the National Trust and by English Nature. There's a free NT car park at the top, from where you can do various walks. We headed out there early on a sunny May Sunday morning, to get a head start on the day.This area is renowned for its bluebells, and with good reason. Being early, we were lucky enough to have the whole place nearly entirely to ourselves. Right from the minute we stepped over the stone stile, we were in a world of blue and green. Descending the steps through the woodland, the rising morning sun shone through the leaves, playing dappled light over carpets of bluebells.The birds were up, awake, and impressively noisy as we headed down to the bottom, through wooded glades like something out of Robin Hood, and over a merrily tinkling stream. The sides of the valley were covered in bluebells, interspersed with great ferns, mossy rocks, fallen trees, it felt like swimming in green. Once at the bottom, we took the left turn, up and through the gorge.A gradual ascent steepens, until eventually we were climbing up the path, which in worse weather is actually a stream. Today we clambered up through the gorge, with the children pretending to be rock climbers, hiding in the caverns on the side where water drips and primeval ferns lurk, and generally having a great time. As you go up, the views grow behind you, but the best is yet to come. The path flattens out and we turned to the right, where shortly we arrived at the rocky outcropping at the top of the gorge. Up here on the exposed rock is a perfect place to sit and catch your breath, admire the views over towards Glastonbury and back over the way you have come, to the half-glimpsed pillar in the car park there.Having refreshed, we retraced our steps a little and headed on, down a long winding path with steps built into it, through the woodland, past yet more bluebells, an ancient mossy wall at the boundary… until we were back at the bottom again. Back over that stream, but then left, up the long straight path to the stile, and then a steep turn to the right up to that pillar… which commemorates the donation of Ebbor Gorge, and from where you can again see where you have been.Then it was back to the car, through wildflowers and grasses, where there are several lovely patches kept cut a little shorter for picnicking should you fancy sitting to have lunch and to enjoy those great views again. The whole walk took us under an hour, and it was a very pleasant hour at that.Just a note - I wouldn't recommend this walk for the very small or the very old - but there are shorter more suitable walks here too.
From journal Out and About in Somerset, Summer 2006