Hotels in Somerset

If you are going to Somerset. It may be an idea to stay at a hotel in the county. Some people like a luxury hotel some like a cheap hotel. Your vacation should have a good time. You may require a hotel because you are working in the area or doing a deal so need a place to stay while you do this deal. You may want to see the historic sites the culture or the scenery of the county.

Somerset is a county in south west England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The ceremonial county of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the coast of the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the River Severn. The traditional northern border of the county is the River Avon, but the administrative boundary has crept southwards, with the creation and expansion of the City of Bristol, and latterly the county of Avon and its successor Unitary Authorities in the north.

There is an extensive network of caves, including Wookey Hole, underground rivers, and gorges, including Cheddar Gorge and Ebbor Gorge. The county has many rivers, including the Axe, Brue, Cary, Parrett, Sheppey, Tone and Yeo. These both feed and drain the flat levels and moors of mid and west Somerset. In the north of the county the River Chew flows into the Bristol Avon. The Parrett is tidal almost to Langport, where there is evidence of two Roman wharfs. At the same site during the reign of King Charles I, river tolls were levied on boats to pay for the maintenance of the bridge.

Levels and moors

The Somerset Levels (or Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known) are a sparsely populated wetland area of central Somerset, between the Quantock and Mendip hills. They consist of marine clay levels along the coast, and the inland moors. The Levels are divided into two by the Polden Hills; land to the south is drained by the River Parrett while land to the north is drained by the River Axe and the River Brue. The total area of the Levels amounts to approximately 160,000 acres and broadly corresponds to the administrative district of Sedgemoor but also includes the south west of Mendip district. Drainage began with the Romans, and was restarted at various times: by the Anglo-Saxons; in the Middle Ages by the Glastonbury Abbey, from 1400–1770; and during the Second World War, with the construction of the Huntspill River. Pumping and management of water levels still continues.

The North Somerset Levels basin, north of the Mendips, covers a smaller geographical area than the Somerset Levels; and forms a coastal area around Avonmouth. It too was reclaimed by draining. It is mirrored, across the Severn Estuary, in Wales, by a similar low-lying area: the Caldicot and Wentloog Levels.

In the far west of the county, running into Devon, is Exmoor, a high Devonian sandstone moor. The highest point in Somerset is Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, with an altitude of 1,704 ft. Over 100 sites in Somerset have been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Coastline

The 40 mile coastline of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary forms part of the northern border of Somerset. The Bristol Channel has the second largest tidal range in the world. At Burnham-on-Sea, for example, the tidal range of a spring tide is over 39 feet. Proposals for the construction of a Severn Barrage aim to harness this energy. The main coastal towns are, from the west to the north east, Minehead, Watchet, Burnham-on-Sea, Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead. The coastal area between Minehead and the eastern extreme of the administrative county's coastline at Brean Down is known as Bridgwater Bay, and is a National Nature Reserve. North of that, the coast forms Weston Bay and Sand Bay whose northern tip, Sand Point, marks the lower limit of the Severn Estuary. In the mid and north of the county the coastline is low as the level wetlands of the levels meet the sea. In the west, the coastline is high and dramatic where the plateau of Exmoor meets the sea, with high cliffs and waterfalls.

Towns in Somerset

Axbridge, Bath, Bridgwater, Bridgwater Canalside Centre, Burnham-on-Sea, Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge, Chard, Clevedon, Crewkerne, Frome, Glastonbury, Highbridge, Ilminster, Keynsham, Midsomer Norton, Minehead, Nailsea, North Petherton, Norton Radstock, Portishead and North Weston, Portishead, Radstock, Shepton Mallet, South Petherton Street, Watchet, Wellington, Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Wincanton, Wiveliscombe, Yeovil

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