has since been reopened for freight traffic as far as Royal Portbury Dock, 2.5 miles (4 km) downstream, and funding is now in place to reopen the rest of the line and reintroduce passenger services to Portishead. Between 1893 and 1934, the Clifton Rocks Railway linked the passenger steamer pier at Hotwells with Clifton on the rim of the gorge. A footpath and National Cycle Network cycleway run alongside the Portishead Railway and along the old towpath. The gorge's proximity to the urban population of Bristol made it a popular venue for rock climbing from the 1940s – a time when most UK climbing was centred in mountain areas. The first guide to climbing routes in Avon Gorge was published in 1955 by the University of Bristol Mountaineering Club. The same year, British mountaineer Chris Bonington climbed Main Wall putting up Mercavity. The 2017 edition of The Climbers' Club Guide to Avon Gorge by Martin Crocker lists 400 pages of routes and guidance. Avon Gorge is often criticised as being so over-climbed many of the routes are "polished". Mythology The formation of the Avon Gorge is the subject of mediaeval mythology. The myths tell tales of two giant brothers, Goram and Vincent, who constructed the gorge. One variation holds that Vincent and Goram were constructing the gorge together and Goram fell asleep, to be accidentally killed by Vincent's pickaxe. Another variation tells of the brothers falling for Avona, a girl from Wiltshire, who instructs the giants to drain a lake which stretches from Rownham Hill to Bradford-on-Avon (i.e. the Avon valley). Goram began digging the nearby Hazel Brook Gorge in Blaise Castle estate, but consumed too much beer and fell asleep. Vincent dug the Avon Gorge and drained the lake, winning the affection of Avona. Upon waking Goram stamped his foot, creating "The Giant's Footprint" in the Blaise Castle estate, and threw himself into the Bristol Channel, turning to stone and leaving his head and shoulder above water as the islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm. References Notes Bibliography Beckett, Derrick (1980). Brunel's Britain. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. . Hussey, David (2000). Coastal and River Trade in Pre-industrial England: Bristol and its Region 1680–1730. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. . Myles, Sarah (2000) The Flora of the Bristol Region External links Avon Gorge and Downs Wildlife Project Downswatch: Bristol Downs and Avon Gorge Preservation Group Landforms of Bristol