Churches and cathedrals to visit

Somerset has some of the finest church architecture in England. Its wool wealth paid for soaring Perpendicular towers in almost every village, its abbeys were among the richest in the land, and Wells Cathedral is, in the words of one historian, "the most poetic of the English cathedrals". All of these are within an hour of Hunter's Moon, and several are within a few minutes.

The great churches

Wells Cathedral (9 miles)

Begun in 1175, Wells was the first English cathedral built entirely in the Gothic style. Its west front carries more than three hundred medieval statues, the largest gallery of its kind in Britain, and inside the extraordinary scissor arches, added in 1338 to stop the tower collapsing, are unlike anything else in the world. Look for the fourteenth-century astronomical clock, the second-oldest working clock mechanism in Britain, whose jousting knights circle every quarter hour; the worn stone staircase to the octagonal Chapter House; and the swans on the moat of the neighbouring Bishop's Palace, trained to ring a bell for food. Choral evensong most days is free and magical. wellscathedral.org.uk

Glastonbury Abbey (5 miles)

The ruins of what was, by the fourteenth century, the richest monastery in England after Westminster, with claims to be the oldest Christian foundation in Britain and the burial place of King Arthur. See the Lady Chapel, the abbot's kitchen and the Holy Thorn. Full details on our places to visit page.

Bath Abbey (27 miles)

The last great medieval church built in England, finished just before the Reformation, with a famous fan-vaulted ceiling, a west front carved with angels climbing ladders to heaven, and a tower tour that takes you above the bells for a view over the Roman Baths next door.

Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse (12 miles)

A vast neo-Gothic Benedictine abbey church, one of the largest built in Britain since the Reformation and a minor basilica. The monks still sing the offices, and visitors are welcome for services and to see the church.

Muchelney Abbey (18 miles)

Near Langport on the Levels, the ruins of Somerset's second-oldest religious foundation with a beautifully preserved abbot's lodging (English Heritage). The parish church next door has a painted ceiling of angels, and the thatched Priest's House is National Trust.

Glastonbury's churches

• St John the Baptist, High Street: one of the finest parish churches in Somerset, with a 134-foot tower, medieval stained glass, the tomb of a fifteenth-century merchant, a Holy Thorn in the churchyard and the grass labyrinth.
• St Michael's Tower on the Tor: the roofless fourteenth-century tower of a church destroyed by earthquake and Reformation, and the most photographed church remnant in England.
• St Benedict's, Benedict Street: a rebuilt sixteenth-century church associated with Abbot Bere, with a peaceful garden.
• St Margaret's Chapel and Almshouses, Magdalene Street: a tiny medieval hospital chapel with a garden of quiet, a few steps from the Abbey gates.

Village churches near the cottage

The lanes around Hunter's Moon are dotted with village churches that are usually open and always worth a look. Most have the tall Somerset towers built in the fifteenth century from the local golden limestone.

• West Bradley, St Mary: a small medieval church in the village at the end of our lane, with a Norman font.
• West Pennard, St Nicholas: fifteenth-century, with a fine tower and a court barn nearby that belonged to Glastonbury Abbey (National Trust, exterior viewable).
• Pilton, St John the Baptist: above the festival village, with a magnificent carved and painted wagon roof; the fourteenth-century tithe barn below it belonged to the Abbey.
• Baltonsborough, St Dunstan: in the village where St Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury and Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in 909.
• Ditcheat, St Mary Magdalene: a large cruciform church with a rare wall painting of St Michael and a screen of 1493.
• Croscombe, St Mary: on the road to Wells, famous for its complete Jacobean woodwork of 1616, the finest in the county.
• Evercreech, St Peter: a tower so admired that it was copied in the nineteenth century; the church also has painted angels on its roof.
• North Cadbury, St Michael: beside the manor house, with medieval bench-ends carved with everything from a windmill to a cat.

Pilgrim routes

Glastonbury has drawn pilgrims for over a thousand years, and the tradition continues. The annual Glastonbury Pilgrimage in June brings processions through the Abbey grounds, and a growing number of walkers follow modern pilgrim routes between Wells Cathedral, Glastonbury and the Tor. The three-mile field path between Wells and Glastonbury via Launcherley makes a lovely half-day walk with a bus back; see our walks page.