Avon Gorge

The Avon Gorge is a deep limestone gorge carved by the River Avon in Somerset. It stretches for about 2.4 kilometres between Clifton on the east and Leigh Woods on the west. The gorge forms a natural boundary between North Somerset and Bristol city, and once served as a defensive gateway to the port of Bristol. Three Iron Age hill forts overlook the gorge, and the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge spans its 213-metre width. The gorge’s steep walls rise up to 91 metres, creating a dramatic landscape just west of the city centre. The gorge is recognised for its rare geology and ecology. Its limestone formed 350 million years ago in tropical seas, and the gorge itself was shaped when ice blocked the river’s natural path during the Anglian ice age. The gorge once supplied building stone for Bristol and later became the world’s main source of celestine between 1880 and 1920. Peregrine falcons nest on the cliffs, and rare plants such as the Bristol whitebeam and Wilmotts’s whitebeam grow only here. The gorge also has a microclimate about one degree warmer than the surrounding land. Visitors walk along paths on both sides of the gorge, with views of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the river below. The Downs on the Bristol side offer open grassland and woodland walks, while Leigh Woods on the west side are managed by the National Trust. The gorge is home to unusual wildflowers like Bristol rock cress and fly orchid, and bats roost in its caves and bridge buttresses. Rock climbers scale the limestone faces under careful conservation rules, and the camera obscura in Clifton Observatory projects views of the gorge onto a table.