Cheddar Gorge a tourist destination. In a 2005 poll of "Radio Times" readers, following its appearance on the 2005 television programme "Seven Natural Wonders", Cheddar Gorge was named as the second greatest natural wonder in Britain, surpassed only by Dan yr Ogof caves. The gorge attracts about 500,000 visitors per year. Cheddar is a gorge lying on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. The maximum depth of the gorge is , with a near-vertical cliff-face to the south, and steep grassy slopes to the north. The B3135 road runs along the bottom of the gorge. The area is underlain by Black
Wookey Hole Caves gate servicing the paper mill was built about 1852. The tunnel excavated from the third chamber to the ninth chamber and then out to daylight was dug in 1974–1975 by ex-coal miners from the Radstock area. The show cave was further extended in 2015 by excavating a tunnel from the ninth chamber to the 20th chamber. The constant temperature of in the caves is used by Ford Farm of Dorset to mature Cheddar cheese in the 'Cheese Tunnel' – an excavated side tunnel between the ninth chamber and the exit to the show cave. Archaeological investigations were undertaken from 1859