Burrington Combe
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
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 Location within Somerset
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| Area of Search | Avon |
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| Grid reference | ST478583 |
| Coordinates | 51°19′17″N 2°45′02″W / 51.32140°N 2.75047°WCoordinates: 51°19′17″N 2°45′02″W / 51.32140°N 2.75047°W |
| Interest | Biological and Geological |
| Area | 139.1 ha (344 acres) |
| Notification | 1952 |
| Natural England website | |
Burrington Combe is a Carboniferous Limestone gorge near the village of Burrington, on the north side of the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in North Somerset, England.
"Combe" or "coombe" is a word of Celtic origin found in several forms on all of the British Isles, denoting a steep-sided valley or hollow. Burrington Combe is a gorge through the limestone hills although there is now no river running through it. Various cave entrances are exposed which have been occupied by humans for over 10,000 years, with a hillfort being built beside the combe in the Iron Age. The geology has led to a diversity of plant life.
According to legend Augustus Montague Toplady was inspired to write the hymn Rock of Ages while sheltering under a rock in the combe, although recent scholars have disputed this claim.
Water draining from Black Down has exposed rocks from the Devonian sandstones of the Portishead Formation which show through the limestone, Carboniferous mudstones of the Avon Group, limestones of the Black Rock Limestone Subgroup and oolitic limestones of the Burrington Oolite Subgroup; however the exact mechanism by which the gorge was formed is unknown. The northern and lower end of the combe, which was once the bed of the Congresbury Yeo, cuts through overlying Clifton Down Limestone. Triassic dolomitic conglomerate can also locally be seen along the combe.
Archaeological discoveries of early cemeteries demonstrate human occupation of the combe and its caves from the Bronze Age with some evidence of occupation during the Upper Palaeolithic period. The combe contains the entrances to many of the caves of the Mendip Hills, including Aveline's Hole, Sidcot Swallet and Goatchurch Cavern. A through trip has been dug from Rod's Pot to Bath Swallet, which are both on the hills above the majority of Burrington caves. Further afield and equally accessible is Read's Cavern.
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