Cheddar Gorge, Nunney Castle, Farleigh Hungerford Castle, and Bath

Arrival Date: 2018-08-24
Departure Date: 2018-08-27
Accommodation: Premier Inn, Bristol Haymarket, Bristol

On the August Bank Holiday weekend, we set off to visit Bristol, Bath, and beyond. Helen travelled down on the Friday morning by train, and I drove down later on in the afternoon, after a morning of work, followed by dropping the cats off at the cattery.

Helen enjoyed a full day of shopping in Bristol before I arrived at the hotel around 6pm, just in time for us to go out for dinner. We went to a small independent Italian restaurant called Aquila, it was raining so we turned up a little wet. I had a mixed grill which was lovely, while Helen had a crab spaghetti which was a little lacking in crab. The mozzarella garlic bread was delicious though!

After a good night’s sleep, we got ready for the day, ate a fry-up in the Beefeater downstairs (which was a little lacking in options, no scrambled egg!), then got on the road to start our adventures. Our first stop was Cheddar Gorge, but on the way, Helen spotted a sign on the side of the road that said “OVER 1 MILLION BOOKS” with an arrow, and excitedly asked if we could go. It was just 2 minutes out of our way, so we took a detour to the Book Barn near Hallatrow, and bought a few cheap books.

On to Cheddar Gorge, we got the last car parking space in the village centre then started exploring.

First stop was Jacob’s Ladder, 274 steps that took us right to the top of the gorge.

Tiring, but worth it. The views at the top were great, but unfortunately the lookout tower was closed for renovations. We didn’t want to do the full 3-mile clifftop walk (we had too much else to see!), so we just walked up to Pulpit Rock (the first landmark), then went back down.

From here we checked out the first cave, Cox’s Cave, with the ‘Dreamhunters’ multimedia experience. It was a fairly small cave with lots of little chambers, each chamber was rigged with projectors and lighting equipment, and had a short 2-3 minute movie about prehistoric life. It was quite interesting, and some of the light shows were really good to see, especially the ones that used the water to reflect the videos off of.

We then moved up the hill and on to the second cave, which was much much bigger and far busier, Gough’s Cave. Lots of stalactites and stalagmites, water-carved rock, and lots of little chambers. No need to duck in this cave to avoid low ceilings either, it was very cavernous (so to speak). The only problem were the masses of people listening to their audio tours, stood staring at the ceiling while we were trying to get past!

Some of the rock formations looked like melted candle wax, I told Helen they felt just like candle wax, she didn’t believe me though.

Out of the cave, we had a walk around the shops. Nearly bought some cheese to take home, but decided against it since we’d be out all day and thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to leave a wheel of cheese in a hot car for that many hours! Took a few more pictures on the way back to the car, then moved on to our next stop. We were glad we arrived when we did, as when we left it looked like hundreds more people were just trying to park up!

Our next stop was Nunney Castle, about a 40 minute drive away from Cheddar Gorge, in the small village of Nunney. By the time we arrived there it was around 1pm, so we decided to get a slice of cake from a little cafe called “The Moat and Turret”. I had a brownie, Helen had a slice of lime drizzle cake, both were delicious. After these we took a walk around the castle.

The castle itself only consisted of a keep surrounded by a moat, so wasn’t very big. The problem was that it was in such an enclosed area, so was difficult to get a good view of the whole castle from all sides.

The castle was originally built by John de la Mare back in 1373, and stood occupied until the civil war when it was besieged by Parliament and destroyed. During the ruin, the moat had partially been filled in, but in 1926 the grounds were restored, and the moat was re-excavated, hence why it looks so well-kept.

There wasn’t much more of Nunney or Nunney Castle to see, so we went back to the car and headed off to our next destination.

Farleigh Hungerford Castle was a short 15 minute drive away from Nunney, and was a much bigger and much more open castle. You actually drive through the outer-castle grounds to get to the car park.

Unlike Nunney which was very enclosed, Farleigh Hungerford was very spread out. Since only 2 towers really remained standing, this meant most of the views around the grounds were just of ruined foundations. Though there was a good spot to take a panoramic shot of the area in the outer bailey just in front of the main gatehouse.

The castle was built by Sir Thomas Hungerford (which could’ve been my nickname at this time of day if we hadn’t stopped for that slice of cake), back in 1380, the outer bailey (including the chapel which still stands) was added in the 15th century.

This is the main entrance that we drove through.

After a good walk around, we got back in the car and headed to our fourth location of the day: Bath. It was only another 15 minute drive away, so we got there, parked up, and started exploring.

We first came across Pulteney Bridge, a bridge over the River Avon lined with shops that was lovely and picturesque.

Next, we walked by the Cathedral, but we didn’t go in as there was a big queue. The same was true for the Roman Baths, the queue was over an hour long, so we decided to spend our time elsewhere. We’ll definitely be coming back in off-peak season though to visit these places.

We walked around the shops, found some painted tiles that we loved so much we had to buy a set of for the house, then as we were about to take a walk out to Victoria Park and the Botanical Gardens, the heavens opened and seemingly out of nowhere a torrential downpour started. We had to shelter under a tree, huddled together under Helen’s umbrella for 5 minutes to let it pass! The rain seemed to catch everyone in the city off-guard, as they were all doing the same as us (look at the blue skies in the other photos here, it was a very surreal downpour)! Despite the tree and umbrella, we both got thoroughly soaked, so decided to stay close to the shops instead of going out to the park and gardens.

By this time it was around 5:30pm, so we headed for the “Bar + Block Steakhouse” that we liked the look of, they just managed to fit us in since we arrived for an early dinner. I had a “Spiral Cut Fillet” and fries, Helen had “The Mighty Block Burger”, both of which were delicious! We’d definitely recommend this place!

Thinking back, that was one of the best fillet steaks I’ve ever had, so I’d have that again! Well fed, we headed back to the car, stopping off at a bookshop, and to take another picture of some of the architecture near the Roman Baths.

We picked up some supplies from the nearby Waitrose, then got back in the car and headed back to the hotel, arriving at around 7:30pm. Time to get some rest now, tomorrow we explore Bristol!