Tunnel vision for Bath | The Independent
Bath is first and foremost a Georgian city, but its newest attraction is founded on impressive Victorian engineering . Last Saturday, Combe Down Tunnel – bricked up since the closure in 1966 of the Somerset and Dorset Railway – opened with great fanfare to cyclists and walkers. Burrowing through the hills south of Bath, the tunnel is just over a mile in length, and as such, it is being trumpeted as Britain's longest cycle tunnel . Riding through the underground thoroughfare is a striking sensory experience . The tunnel curves at both ends, so there is little daylight inside. Instead, lights placed every seven metres cast soft pools of illumination on to the smooth road surface and the sooty brick and limestone walls. So as not to disturb the resident bats, the low roof of the tunnel is kept in semi-darkness. Halfway along, you hear violins playing . An acoustic trick, you wonder. But no: the music is in fact coming out of speakers set into recesses. The transformation of the tun...