Cheddar Gorge
A Somerset history teacher once shared DNA with a man who died 9,000 years ago in the cave beneath Cheddar Gorge. It's Britain's biggest gorge, and it's far more than a cheese backdrop.
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Quick Facts
- Location
- Mendip Hills, beside the village of Cheddar, Somerset
- Size
- About 3 miles (5 km) long, with limestone cliffs up to roughly 137 metres (450 ft) high
- Formed
- Carved by torrents of meltwater during the Ice Age
- Britain's biggest
- The largest gorge in the UK
- Famous find
- Cheddar Man, a Mesolithic skeleton of about 10,000 years ago, found in Gough's Cave in 1903
- Show caves
- Gough's Cave and Cox's Cave, opened to visitors in the 19th century
- Wildlife
- Home to the Cheddar pink, a flower found wild in Britain only here, plus feral goats and Soay sheep
- Climb
- Jacob's Ladder, 274 steps up to Pavey's Lookout Tower
The teacher who met his ancient cousin
In 1903, workers digging in Gough's Cave found a skeleton that had lain there since the end of the Ice Age. Named Cheddar Man, he is Britain's oldest almost-complete human skeleton, and he lived about 10,000 years ago. In 1997, geneticists compared his DNA with that of local people. They found a match in Adrian Targett, a history teacher who lived in Cheddar. Their shared ancestry reached back some 300 generations. Cheddar Man made headlines again in 2018. Analysis of his DNA suggested he had dark skin and blue eyes. That overturned the old picture of the first Britons and rewrote a good few textbooks. The original skeleton is kept at the Natural History Museum, while a replica is displayed in Cheddar.
How a river of ice-melt cut Britain's mightiest gorge
There is no river in the gorge today, but there once was a huge one. During the cold stages of the Ice Age the ground was frozen solid and the limestone was sealed against drainage. Summer meltwater had nowhere to go but over the surface, and it tore through the Mendip plateau. The result is a cleft about 3 miles long, with cliffs reaching around 137 metres. Older explanations blamed a collapsed cave system. The meltwater flood theory is the one that has stuck. The water that does flow now disappears underground and re-emerges in Cheddar village, where a spring feeds the stream through the centre.
Cheese, caves and a royal order
Cheddar cheese takes its name from the village, and the style has spread across the world. Most of it is made elsewhere, but the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company makes it at a dairy at the foot of the gorge. The name Cheddar itself is not protected, but some versions are. West Country Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese has PDO status, and Orkney Scottish Island Cheddar has PGI status. The caves play a part too. Their steady cool temperature and humidity suit maturing cheese, and some is still aged in Cheddar's caves today. The cheese connection goes back a long way. A royal record shows that in 1170 Henry II bought more than 10,000 pounds of Cheddar cheese. It is among the earliest well-known mentions of the stuff.
Two caves, two showmen
Cheddar's caves were once Victorian money-spinners. George Cox opened what became Cox's Cave in 1837, after it was found on his land. Its stalactites and stalagmites still glow in coloured reflections in the pools. Richard Cox Gough opened Gough's Cave in the 1890s, after years of clearing and developing it. It is the larger of the two and is lined with dramatic formations. It is also where Cheddar Man was found. Gough's Cave has a darker story too. Bones there from roughly 14,700 years ago carry cut marks, which researchers have read as evidence of cannibalism among Ice Age people.
Look up: cliffs, goats and a flower found nowhere else
Walk the gorge road and look up. Feral goats pick their way along the ledges, and Soay sheep, a primitive breed from the St Kilda islands, graze the cliffs too. The real prize is a small pink flower. The Cheddar pink grows wild in Britain only on these limestone cliffs. It blooms in early summer, and its frilly petals have been admired by botanists for centuries. For a better view, climb Jacob's Ladder. Its 274 steps lead to Pavey's Lookout Tower, with views across the gorge and, on clear days, over the Somerset Levels towards the Bristol Channel. A clifftop walk follows the rim, with the road winding far below.
Notable people
- Cheddar Man
- Adrian Targett
- Richard Cox Gough
- George Cox
- Henry II
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