Despite doing this silly hobby for a long time now, there's still a few attractions in the UK that I tend to drive past as I'm on my way to get creds. I always make a mental note that I want to visit one day, but I'll admit that I'm the worst for pretty much ignoring attractions if they don't have a coaster, which is terrible really! Anyway, Wookey Hole was probably top of my 'Most Wanted' list of UK attractions. Everything about it has always intrigued me. Firstly the name, which frankly is ridiculous. Wookey Hole? Surely they can't be serious? No wonder the Americans think we're weird if we're giving names like that to our national treasures. Secondly, it always had that weird rural England vibe going on, kind of like a Wicker Man situation where you don't know what shenanigans the locals are going to unveil on you. I always love that about non-chain attractions, you literally have no idea what to expect but you can guarantee it's going to be weird as hell.
So a new cred opened in Somerset last year and I engineered a little double whammy trip to nab the cred then spend the rest of the day at Wookey Hole! For those that don't know, Wookey Hole is a series of limestone caves in Somerset through which the River Axe runs, around which a small tourist attraction has been built. First and foremost, the place is absolutely stunning. The small villages in the surrounding area are adorably quaint and the surrounding scenery is breathtaking. On top of that the caves themselves are stunning too, so even without the touristy tat it's a beautiful place to visit anyway!
So, onto the weirdness. The caves themselves have a legend surrounding the Witch of Wookey Hole who is said to have been turned into stone by locals who blamed her for misfortunes such as bad crops etc (as crazy countryside people are known to do). The caves are lit beautifully with colourful lights that on first impressions I thought would be tacky but actually just serves to accentuate the natural beauty of the rocks. I'm kind of fascinated by caves so it was fab to finally experience some in my homeland! Our tour guide was a little on the...odd side which was kind of funny to start off with but also felt a little detrimental to the interesting facts about the caves themselves.
The rest of the attraction is built around an old paper mill and was actually a really nice blast to the past in terms of the actual attractions available. In the modern world of theme parks where everyone is fighting to have the latest mind-blowing technology it was actually really fab to have some good old fashioned fun! The park has a Jurassic Park rip off area, a cute fairy garden built around the streams of the River Axe leaving the caves, a mirror maze and a penny arcade. The simplistic style of the attractions means everything is extremely low maintenance and running costs, meaning there's loads to do without having to pay much to run them! We had a great time wandering through the mirror maze (and getting genuinely lost), playing on the old arcade machines and cringing at the completely outdated Carry-On style seaside postcard posters!
We also managed to catch the Wookey Hole Circus. We had no idea what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually a production put on by local young people demonstrating a pretty impressive array of circus skills! The music choice was a little...odd to say the least (the Dream Theater style villain music was a particular highlight) but that only added to our enjoyment of the show.
We were going to squeeze in a quick round of mini-gold before hitting the road but sadly we couldn't play because they didn't have any balls (no really). Normally this would have pissed me off, but it was so ridiculous that we just kind of laughed and shrugged our shoulders. Instead we opted to indulge in some ice cream (which was amazing, I had coconut flavour <3) and said goodbye to Wookey Hole!
I'm so glad I finally made time to visit this attraction. It's everything I hoped it would be, it ticks the weirdness box several times over and is a great break from the modern theme park world and indulge in some nostalgic fun from simpler times. It's great to see that this style of entertainment is still alive and well, and apparently doing extremely well for itself as there's now a hotel on site and newly opened luxury holiday lodges that would give the Enchanted Village at Alton Towers a run for its money. I love that there's still a place in the UK themed attractions market for a place like Wookey Hole, and I'd encourage anybody in the area to make time for a visit to this truly unique attraction.
Talk later xoxo,
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