The area includes Neolithic hill forts, remains of Roman villas and many listed buildings. The area also includes 9477 ha of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
74 Scheduled Monuments. Some of the oldest are Neolithic, Bronze Age or Iron Age including hill forts, such as Kenwalch's Castle and Bowl barrows. The Romano-British period is represented with several sites including the Low Ham Roman Villa which included an extensive mosaic floor, now on display in the Museum of Somerset.[4] Religious sites are represented by Muchelney Abbey, which was founded in the 7th or 8th century,[5] and Montacute Priory, a Cluniac priory of the Benedictine order, from the 11th.[6] More recent sites include several motte-and-bailey castles such as Cary Castle,[7] and church crosses which date from the Middle Ages. Several packhorse bridges, such as Bow Bridge, Plox also appear in the list. The most recent monuments include the Round House, a village lock-up in Castle Cary dating from 1779.[8][9][10]