Historic county of England
Somerset
Somersetshire
Mendips above the Levels, Quantocks beyond, Exmoor rising towards the western sea.
Somerset contains one of England’s strongest sequences of contrasting landscapes. The limestone Mendips rise across the north above the immense flat country of the Somerset Levels; beyond the Levels stand the Quantocks; further west the county climbs again into the high moorland of Exmoor before falling dramatically to the Bristol Channel.
Bath occupies the Avon valley in the north-east; Wells sits beneath the Mendips; Glastonbury Tor rises conspicuously from the lowlands; and Taunton belongs to the gentler country beyond the Quantocks. Rivers, hills and wetland repeatedly divide and reconnect the county, creating a landscape much more varied than its popular associations with cider and orchards suggest.
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Somersaete
- Sumorsaete: Somerton people
- County Flag: Traditional Somerset Dragon
- Area: 1,633 sq miles
- Population: 1,053,504
- County Top: Dunkery Beacon
County geography
Current Census
Contemporary Census profile
England and Wales Census 2021. Detailed contemporary statistics are available in the Geographic County Census Explorer.
- Population density
- 700.3 people per sq mi (270.4 people per km²)
- Population
- 1,142,655
Mendips and Levels
The Mendips form a long limestone ridge of caves, dry valleys and gorges. Immediately to their south lies an almost opposite landscape: the Somerset Levels and Moors.
Here the land falls close to sea level, with rivers, rhynes, drainage channels, peat and former islands creating an intensely water-shaped countryside. The contrast between limestone height and reclaimed wetland is one of Somerset’s defining geographical relationships.
Parrett and the wetland basin
The Parrett and its tributaries drain a large part of central Somerset towards Bridgwater Bay. The Brue and Axe organise other parts of the Levels.
For centuries the challenge has been not simply crossing this landscape but managing water within it. Drainage altered the Levels profoundly without removing their fundamental wetland character.
Quantocks to Exmoor
West of the Levels, the Quantock Hills rise as a wooded and heath-covered ridge before the land opens towards Exmoor.
Exmoor gives western Somerset a wholly different scale, with high moor, deeply cut valleys and a dramatic coast. Dunkery Beacon provides the county’s highest ground.
County questions
Questions about Somerset
Is Bristol a separate geographic county?
No. Bristol’s historic county-corporate status did not make it a separate geographic county. The old course of the Avon divides the historic city between Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south.
Why are the Somerset Levels so flat?
They are low-lying wetland, former estuarine and peat country shaped by rivers, sediment, drainage and reclamation. Slight rises consequently stand out with unusual prominence.
County record
Names and continuity
- Formal name
- County of Somerset
- Alternative name
- Somersetshire
- County day
- 11 May
- Foundation
- 8th-10th century
Somerset, County of Somerset and Somersetshire are established forms of the county name. Its identity reaches back into the early West Saxon period, while its Mendips, Levels, Quantocks and Exmoor remain the clearest way to understand it today.