Somerset is a large rural county that offers a tremendous range of places to go and things to do &www.coates-willowbaskets.co.uk

See how Cheddar Cheese is made and visit the world famous Cheddar Gorge with its underground caves complex www.cheddarcaves.co.uk

After passing through Penniless Porch, view the stunning façade of the smallest cathedral city in England located in Wells. Then walk down the oldest continuously inhabited street in Europe  

Climb Glastonbury Tor for spectacular Somerset countryside views.

Visit Glastonbury Abbey where legends say that King Arthur is burried.

Spot the Witch of Wookey Hole. Then see the mill that produced paper for US Confederate banknotes issued at Richmond, Virginia in 1863 www.wookey.co.uk   

King Arthur Country

The West Country is at the heartland of the fabled King Arthur. From here legend tells about a great warrior-king who ruled England long ago from Camelot, where he held court amongst fair ladies and the heroic Knights of the Round Table.

Although the stories are fictitious, the likelihood is that at the core of them lie distant memories of a real man – a powerful war-leader of the Britons who railed against the invading Saxons during the 5^th and 6^th centuries after the Roman army had withdrawn and left the province of Britain to its own devices.

A number of enjoyable tours can be made of the Arthurian sites around the South West region of England.

A short ride to the north is the bustling city of Glastonbury, which has very strong links with the traditions of Arthur and the Holy Grail. According to legend, the founder of Glastonbury Abbey was Joseph of Arimathea, acclaimed as the man who took Jesus’ body down from the cross for burial. It was said that he bought with him to England the cup of the Last Supper, in which he had caught some of the blood welling from Christ’s wounded side. The Grail is said to lie deep in the Chalice Well, near to the base of the tall mound known as Glastonbury Tor, whose waters have a reddish tinge. Close to the foot of the Tor, Joseph thrust his staff into the ground and it miraculously took root and put out buds. It was the ancestor of the celebrated Glastonbury Thorn tree, which flowers every winter, around old Christmas Day in January. There is one of these trees in the abbey grounds today and one outside the parish church.

Take a long stroll among the fantastic ruins of the Glastonbury Abby, and, if you’re lucky, sit in the old cookhouse and listen to the stories of a monk as he recites the daily toil of the Abby’s inhabitants in the 12th Century. In 1191, the Glastonbury monks, digging in their cemetery discovered what they maintained was the grave of King Arthur and his queen, the beautiful Guinevere. The bodies were afterwards reburied in a black marble tomb in the Abbey church in front of the high altar; this site is marked amongst the ruins today

One place closely connected in folk tradition with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is Cadbury Castle. Don’t be surprised to discover that this is actually not a castle at all, but rather a hill fort. In the 16^th century it was identified as the site of Camelot, and there was a local belief that Arthur and his knights were sleeping inside the hill, ready to awake and ride out when England needed them.  

Archaeological excavations in the 1960’s revealed that during the period following the Roman withdrawal, fortifications at Cadbury were strengthened on a massive scale, unmatched at this time anywhere else in the country. Clearly Cadbury was the base of a formidable warlord with ample resources, men and money. Was he the original Arthur?

Close by is the little river Cam and the village Queen’s Camel – could these be names which recall Camelot?