A few weeks ago we were surprised but delighted to get a visit from our neighbours in Cheddar Gorge. No-one (person that is) actually lives in the gorge, but it is well populated with goats and sheep. The goats were released in to the gorge area to keep down the scrub and whilst they have done a good job of that they've basically gone feral and the population is pretty large. The sheep are Soay an ancient British breed that are also fairly feral.
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Most days you can bump in to the goats and sheep (almost literally) as you drive the gorge road, early morning or late evening when they are down nibbling the verges. Seemingly completely oblivious to cars bearing down on them (and at this time of year) their babies. Luckily I have never seen any sad roadkill so it all works.

Anyway it seems that their populations are growing so much that they are looking further afield for good food. And last year for the first time in most people's memory a few ventured in to the upper village and raided the gardens. It seems they have a strong liking for tulips and a couple of neighbours were very annoyed to have their spring beauties systematically eaten. And now it is happening a second year, and we had a few visits.

This particular mother and her lamb (kid?) seem a regular in Birch Hill and a number of neighbours have tried to shepherd them back to the gorge. Luckily for us we don't have any tulips and nothing at the moment in the garden that would be a huge frustration if it got nibbled.

If you come and stay at the cottage we cannot guarantee any close-up encounters on the cottage patio, but if you do the gorge walk then you'll almost certainly spot some sheep and goats. Some of the billy goats are very impressive with long goatee beards. You will probably also smell them from a distance - the goats have a very soured goat milk odour!

Pretty much anyone in the UK, or indeed Europe, has been experiencing some of the most wintery weather we've experienced in many years. To start with, here in Somerset, we were just suffering the cold temperatures, and in particular the biting wind.

And then suddenly Somerset was in first an amber and then a red weather warning area as storm Emma drove moist air up in to the cold air mass over Britain, and the two weather systems colliding whipped up the winds even more.


In fact because of the winds the snow was not "deep and crisp and even", but much more variable. Birch Hill outside the cottage was pretty much clear of snow whilst in the garden and anywhere, the winds eddied around, the snow piled up in deep drifts. All in all we probably got 6 to 8 inches on average. And certainly it all looked lovely.

For possibly a day on the Thursday/Friday we were snowed in as far as vehicles went (no 4-wheel drive available). Birch Hill at the one end has a short steep bit that was too much for normal cars. But there are two flatter routes in that work fine if taken gently. But why drive if you can walk? So we did enjoy walking down to the village a few times with the roads largely to ourselves as most people heeded the advice to not go out if they did not need to.

And now on Saturday it is all thawing quite fast. The worst is over and life around us is returning to normal.

The snow itself has been rather wonderful as it drapes across the gorge slopes and the trees and the cottages. The nastier thing has been the easterly winds, and whilst the cottage has been solid throughout, and snug with underfloor heating and the log stove if wanted, our house has had two tiles ripped off and we're getting them fixed ASAP (but not for a few days  - so no rain, please). That is the first time in 15 years here that we have experienced any storm damage and it says a lot about the strength of the gusts. Not that we are complaining. Despite the dire predictions we have not suffered in any serious way and we know further afield many have.

Must stop now and finish the snowman!

"Cheddar Man" is pretty famous because the nearly-full skeleton discovered in Cheddar Caves over 100 years ago is the oldest example of Homo Sapiens ever found in Britain. How old is he? Well just around 10,000 years. As part of the Cheddar Caves attraction there is a bloke who dress up in old skins and a wild wig (in my mind a cross between Fred Flintstone and a Monty Python character). Entertaining and importantly a fun reminder of the deep pre-history of this place.

But now we have more information due to very recent DNA testing, and to be revealed in a new documentary on Channel 4 on 18th February ("First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000 Year Old Man"). Before I look at the big news story today as part of the fanfare for the documentary, it needs to be pointed out that DNA testing of the skeleton has already thrown up a fascinating fact. DNA from Cheddar Man was compared with local testing of residents. And amazingly there were two exact matches with two children in the village, and an almost exact match (just a single mutation away) with the history teacher in the local school. Indeed our children's history teacher. It cannot get much better than that for your teacher to be a direct descendent!

But the earlier idea of what Cheddar Man might have looked like is harder. Of course wearing animal skins, but what of skins, hair and eyes? Research for the new documentary was funded by the Natural History Museum in London, and from that they realise that far from the fair-skinned, brown-eyed, fair-haired examples of reconstruction to date, in fact the new  and more precise reconstruction shows Cheddar man to have blue eyes, set in a very dark-skinned face and with dark curly hair. All very surprising but somehow wonderful.

I'd love to include a picture here but at the moment the images are very much copyrighted and as and when I can get a photo from the exhibit in the NHM I'll add it to this post. meanwhile you can see it, and learn a bit more on this good Guardian Online article. 

So following a poll featured in the Daily Mail to find what people think is the "Best View in Britain", whilst the view from the summit of Mount Snowdon came in first, Cheddar Gorge was a creditable fifth. The views from inside the gorge looking up, or on top looking down are all spectacular, but the view that people find the most iconic is the one from the highest point on the east side looking over the gorge to the reservoir and on along the Mendip Ridge towards the Quantock Hills.

The full list was: Snowdon summit, the Three Sisters mountain range in Glen Coe, Stonehenge, St Ives Bay, Cheddar Gorge, Loch Ness (from Dores), Buttermere in the Lake District, the Palace of Westminster (viewed from Westminster Bridge), The Giant's Causeway in Co Antrim and finally Loch Lomond.

So we feel Cheddar Gorge is up there in the best of company. See more on the Daily Mail article.

As some of you may know from earlier blogs Gorge View Cottage was a founding supporter of the Cheddar Walking initiative. It was set up from scratch last year to help gain "Walkers are Welcome" accreditation for the village (which it duly did), and to encourage visitors and the local community to enjoy more of the lovely local walks - long and short, flat and hilly, focused on history, nature, geology and more.

One target was to get a walking festival going and we have done just that in collaboration with the Mendip Ramblers. They hold a free three-day festival every year somewhere in the area, over the August Bank Holiday weekend, and yet had never held one in Cheddar. So a perfect opportunity for us to help the Ramblers with local walking knowledge and with venues and parking. This was a great chance for us in the steering group to learn what is involved from the very experienced Ramblers group.

It was by all counts a real success with very strong numbers turning up to enjoy themselves. Over 325 walkers went out on 12 walks over the three days. Each day three walks set of in the morning (15, 11 and 7 miles approximately) and in the afternoon a shorter 5 to 6 mile walk was led out. People came from far and wide to take part, stay locally and enjoy not only the walks but the beautiful countryside, views, and warm welcome from local businesses and hostelries.

Of course you don't have to wait for a festival to enjoy the walking here: Cheddar Walking has developed a range of self-guiding walk sheets for anyone to use - you can download them here.

There is a saying: "not seeing the wood for the trees". Last week I was at an event to discuss and share thinking on how to get people to know more about the Mendip Hills. Now we love the Mendips, and we are proud it is designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). It is reassuring the designation comes with some degree of protection. But I had not appreciated, until I heard other talking, quite how special the Mendip Hills are.
We are lucky in the UK that a lot of our lovely countryside is protected. Just in England and Wales we have 13 National Parks (yellow-green on the map) and 38 AONBs (in orange). And of course some of are headline grabbing in scale: The Pennines, Peak District and Snowdonia amongst the National Parks, and The Cotswolds amongst AONBs. And yet the smaller Mendip Hills AONB really has so much going for it with the variety of the hills, ancient woodlands, the gorges, the industrial history and the surrounding levels. All that in a compact space and very accessible from our national transport networks and bigger conurbations like Bristol and Bath.
Hosted at the Yeo Valley HQ which grazes its organic milk herd on the Mendips it was an uplifting and inspiring event. We're quietly proud to be a little part of that - providing quality eco-self catering here in Gorge View Cottage.

Back in May I blogged about a new initiative in Cheddar that Gorge View Cottage had got behind and helped set up. Well on Friday 4th September it was formally launched. Cheddar Walking is the name of the organisation that will be developing and promoting a quality walking experience in and around Cheddar for visitors and residents alike. Most importantly we have satisfied the tough requirements to achieve full Walkers are Welcome accreditation, a quality mark for over 100 destinations across the UK where walkers are assured of a warm welcome by businesses and community alike, and with plenty of maintained paths and walking guides to help people explore the well-known and not-so-well-known walks around the area. 
The very active steering group have checked and tested seven walks for the launch  - everything from a short 30 minute walk near the gorge and caves, to the iconic 2.5 hour gorge walk, and including a wheelchair/buggy friendly walk around the reservoir. All of these are downloadable and printable from the website, but for all Gorge View Cottage guests these walks are all ready in the special folder that includes lots and lots of take-and-use sheets for enjoying the area.
Next year we'll be co-organising a 3-day walking festival in Cheddar over the August Bank Holiday so if you want to stay for all three days and make the most of it then better think about booking early.

We are now at the beginning of our third year renting out Gorge View Cottage as a self-catering property. Since the beginning we wanted to try and get a good rating with the Green Tourism UK rating scheme to reflect our sustainable commitment, and we were delighted to achieve Gold  level from the first assessment. We also wanted to demonstrate we were a high-quality accommodation for anyone seeking a good break and we also applied for the UK national tourism scheme, known as Visit England (and also as Enjoy England - so a bit confusing).
We easily met the 4-star rating with parts of the cottage getting 5-star scores. We were very happy with that (to reach 5-stars you need some facilities we just cannot provide such as a bath tub). However within the 4-star category the highest scoring properties can achieve a Gold Award, and for the first two years we dropped short by just one or two points. We do though keep improving aspects of the cottage and this year we were delighted to pass the Gold mark. Hopefully that simply reflects the care we take and the ethos we work by and that makes the stay for our guests that much more enjoyable and predictable.
You can find out more about the English Quality mark here: Quality in Tourism

Cheddar has famously had seven pubs - the "Cheddar Seven" and it was a favourite summer trek for some to spend the day wandering between them. They included all the established pubs: Riverside Inn, White Hart, Gardeners Arms, Kings Head and the Bath Arms, along with the Galleries Inn and the bar of the old Cox's Mill Hotel. 
Then as happens the numbers slipped. Cox's Mill, opened by the Longleat Estate along with the Cheddar Gorge attractions with mutterings that it was to be redeveloped for a cable car. All that has gone quiet but the hotel remains closed.
Then the anchor pub in the main village, the Bath Arms (but know to everyone as the "BA") closed with the tenants moving on. And for the past two years we've been down to just five. But first a new Western themed bar opened (we're still to judge that), and now happily after a £500,000 refit the Bath Arms opens again today - refreshed, smarter, nicer pub garden and en-suite rooms. And so we are back to seven and that somehow feels balanced.

It is a pretty familiar refrain that people don't visit some of the attractions on their own door steps because - well - there are things to do at home and being so convenient you can always just go and visit. But years roll by and it doesn't happen.
We are generally good at getting around locally but are certainly prone to this catch too.
So the lovely treat of the recent weeks has been to make a point of visiting more of the lovely Somerset Wildlife Trust's (SWT) nature reserves. They publish a great guide to over 19 sites across Somerset (copy in the cottage) and we are really spoilt by having five main reserves (and several other minor reserves) pretty much on our doorstep most near the head of the gorge.

Black Rock, Long Wood, Velvet Bottom, Ubley Warren and Draycott Sleights are the five and this blog noted our walk to Velvet Bottom back in June 2012. Yesterday we walked Black Rock and Long Wood which connect with Velvet Bottom as part of the Cheddar Complex Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Black Rock is a wide gully and easy walk along a track past old lime kiln ruins and ancient quarry works. This contrasts nicely with Long Wood where (as the name suggests) you are amongst ash, hazel, beech and oak and conifers (but the SWT are slowly clearing conifers to replant with native broad-leaf varieties. A circular walk (muddy in places even in this hot spell) rises steeply to the north edge and then drops you back to the valley/gulley bottom.

At the bottom you sense this is a dried river or stream bed and whilst dry you can hear the stream. In turns out that the stream disappears in to the ground and in to the cave systems below (eventually coming out in the main Cheddar Caves at the other end of the gorge). Its like a water spring in reverse. These points are called "swallets" and as there is a clue that there are caves below so the local cavers have built a concrete access hatch near the swallet so that they can enter the systems below. Further down the dry gulley on the return path you  come across a dry swallet called Long Wood Valley Sink. It turns out that when stream is in full flow it cannot get down the first swallet and starts to flood on down the valley and then goes to ground at the sink. But the winter before last when we had a lot of rain this sink was so choked with debris that the flooding went on down Long Wood valley, through Black Rock and down the winding road through Cheddar Gorge ripping up the road as it went. This then caused the gorge to be closed for weeks as they waited for the flooding to stop and repairs to take place. The rains would not stop, the folding continued and eventually the Mendip Caving Club (with SWT and Natural England helpers) took the initiative to clear the sink and later rebuilt it to be much more robust for the future.

And all this just on our doorstep!

To find out more about SWT's reserves folow these links:
SWT Cheddar Complex Nature Reserves
SWT General Reserves map