Cheddar Complex

The Cheddar Complex is important for karst, caves and vertebrate palaeontology and comprises four single interest localities. Cheddar Gorge is Britain's largest gorge and probably the country's best known limestone feature. It is a spectacular fluvial feature with a geomorphic history extending back 2 million years and encompassing the major environmental changes of the Pleistocene period. Cheddar Caves contain both active and fossil systems. The active cave system is one of the most heavily studied karst systems in Britain with reference to the conduit and diffuse flow characteristics of its hydrology. Charterhouse Caves include four major swallet caves that provide an indisputable record of Pleistocene landform development in the Mendips and surrounding area. Sun Hole Cave provides a varied fauna radiocarbon-dated to the end of the Late Devensian Cold Stage. Several types of limestone including Clifton Down Limestone, Cheddar Limestone and Cheddar Oolite are visible in the Gorge and surrounding areas with pale grey Burrington Oolite outcroping around Black Rock Gate. The Charterhouse area is of great importance as the finest remaining example of the unique Lead orefields of the Mendips. The surface features derived from lead working from pre-Roman times up to the nineteenth century are extremely well preserved.

Dromos