The Somerset Levels (2)

Photos by Palden Jenkins

Mid-Somerset was once known as 'the Summerlands'. Down on the Somerset Levels in spring and summer the air can be soft and moist, and the flower and bird life profuse. In ancient times, living on the islands in the Levels allowed forays into the marshes seeking game, fish and wood, and life will have been easy and good.

Today, many of the Levels west of Glastonbury are wetland nature reserves, hosting many resident and migrant birds, and many of the agricultural fields host herons, white owls, flocks of gulls, crows, ducks and swans. The photos below were taken on a Sunday in May 2006.

To savour the Somerset Levels it is necessary to get out of your car and take walks or bike rides. From Glastonbury there are several cycling options, mainly found by heading along the bike track to the Peat Moors visitor centre or by taking the road to Godney (past the site of the 2,000 year old Lake Village).

Take some binoculars and a snack. At the Peat Moors visitor centre the Willows cafe is commendable. Click here to see what following the bike track is like.

Not long before I went with my son down on the Moors to take these photos, we had visited the Sahara desert in southern Tunisia, staying with the Bedouin (photos here). The Sahara, so quiet, dry and sparsely vegetated, is at the opposite end of the spectrum to the Somerset Levels. The Levels are sodden, verdant, green and mild - an enormous living compost heap, with more biomass per cubic anything than most places on Earth.

If you visit mid-Somerset, do give a day to investigating the Levels - it's a gift worth giving yourself.

If you haven't yet seen them:
More pictures of the Somerset Levels
Come on a bike ride through the Levels

To find out more about the Somerset Levels:

The Avalon Marshes site

Somerset Levels and Moors Project (LAMP)

Peat Moors Visitor Centre

Somerset Nature Reserves - Somerset Wildlife Trust

The Sweet Track