Exploring Ebbor Gorge National Nature Reserve

While on our adventure to Wookey Hole, we did have a full day of just visiting the local area. As the weather was so wonderful and nature so plentiful in that area, we decided to go to Ebbor Gorge National Nature Reserve and have a big walk about. Dann and I decided to do this as a photography walk, as we had been taking so many photos of the new places all day, and figured that brought more adventure and slowed down the walk – which was already quite long – so smaller feet (Robin’s specifically) could keep up.

Ebbor Gorge is a massive, limestone area with small caves and long walks all around it. There is a sign at the carpark which shows a few different routes for walking, as well as a big booth by the carpark that shows a timeline of the area and what animals have lived within this nature reserve. We ended up doing two vastly different walks around Ebbor Gorge, starting with a flat walk that took us behind the timeline building and around the area, showing a few overlooks of the valley below. This walk was all flat and we made really quick work of, bringing us back to the carpark.

Looking for a bit more adventure, we then took the course which stated it would take an hour and was a bit more challenging, and just figured we’d take it slow. This route takes you down a bunch of stone steps, deep into the gorge, which felt like going into a rainforest on the day we went! This area had a bit of fog hanging in the trees, everything was a little bit wet and glistening. We went down the steps, which felt really magical and started walking around the well marked trails. This trail did bring us around a bunch of different flowers and through lots of nature. It’s a lovely walk, that we really enjoyed.

One of the areas the larger rock brought us too was clearly a bit of a stopping and maybe camping spot for some people, with a wicker bear, looking like it’s fighting, in the middle of a bunch of stumps that were perfect for sitting. This was a really silly thing to see in the forest, and Robin especially loved Dann posting for photos fighting the bear! Further along the trail we came to a decision, which said there were caves ahead, but it was a really steep trail. With the concept of caves, Amelia and Kai were determined to continue, and Robin was up for the adventure. We ended up going up the very steep hill, at quite a slow pace, to find an opening with a massive cliffside exposed to it.

This area had a small cave in it, which all three children found to be amazing as they had never seen a cave before (it was the day before we explored Wookey Hole) and they felt this small cave was probably what caves were like. There was another massive steep hill leading to more caves, however we were quite tuckered out at this point and knew it was still quite the walk back to the carpark, so we doubled back. Ebbor Gorge’s larger path isn’t in a circle leading back to the car park like their short path, and so we did end up going the wrong way for a while, assuming it would circle back, but this path was not so steep at all and was fun to walk around with more flowers to enjoy.

We ended up seeing lots of other people on our little hike, and asked them if the route we were on circled back to the carpark, and when they said we were heading the wrong way, and then we did take a slightly different route back up to the carpark, which brought us out on the opposite side of the carpark we had traveled down from. This path was also steep, with grassy stairs build into the side of the mountain. When we got to the top, there was a picnic area with plenty of benches to relax and drink some water from. The view of both Wells and of the gorge from here was truly amazing – if you just do the small walk, it’s well worth going here to see the depths of Ebbor Gorge and see Wells from a distance. I really enjoyed this view and found it to be quite relaxing.

We all had a lovely time at Ebbor Gorge – it’s a great stop if you are looking to enjoy a bit of nature and see some very pretty flowers growing. Though we did not see many caves, we loved the natural feel of this area and it felt so much different to forest walks we have gone on in the past.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!