UKC

The chalk hills of the south may lack elevation, but make up for it with smooth curving lines and wide rural horizons. This grassy downland is a joy to walk, and people have been doing it for millennia. From standing stones to hill forts, evidence of England's long prehistory is everywhere, and this short but fascinating circuit visits four significant monuments. First the Uffington White Horse. The original equestrian geoglyph, this abstract chalk etching is a masterpiece of prehistoric landscape art, though its purpose and meaning are lost to time, and it is frustratingly hard to view from ground level. Above is Uffington Castle, a huge iron age hill fort that must presumably have been home to the horse clan. From here, pick up The Ridgeway. Running along the spine of the Berkshire downs and joining with the Icknield Way in the Chilterns, 'Britain's oldest road' linked The Wash to the Dorset Coast, carrying travellers and traders for at least 5000 years. Nowadays it's a long distance footpath, national infrastructure of a different kind. Long predating the hill fort, if not the roadway, Wayland's Smithy is your end goal - an evocative Neolithic long barrow with a much more recent Saxon name. In terms of education, that's yer lot - but the rest is a nice country ramble, with a cracking pub at the end of it.

5.36 miles, 8.62 km, 205m ascent, 2:30 – 3 hours. Swindon

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In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

Can you see any chalk rock on the way or is pretty much everything covered with grass?

In reply to masa-alpin:

Just the horse and the odd pebble

In reply to Dan Bailey - UKHillwalking.com:

Very fond memories of walking there as kids with the grandparents. Lovely place. 

Plus trying to blow the blowing stone (if that's still a thing) - never worked, though, least of all to summon any armies! 

Supposedly if you left your house at Wayland Smithy overnight it would be shod in the morning, but I can't say I've tried that one. 

In reply to masa-alpin:

What Dan said about rock. But if you're into chalk streams then the valleys nearby would be the place to go.

In reply to Queen of the Traverse:

I seem to remember that there are a few of these locations where you could supposedly leave things for metalwork - shoeing, pots and pans repaired. It’s supposed to be tied up with early metalworkers being somewhat feared as magicians so you avoided direct contact. Something about them being practitioners of human sacrifice I think.