The Ridgeway and Uffington White Horse. A walk: "Keep Fit for a Fiver" BOOKING ESSENTIAL

A WALK DESCRIPTION: The walk traverses the arable country of the Oxfordshire/Berkshire Downs and has several interesting ancient archaeology features. We start on The Ridgeway south-east of the village of Ashbury and walk south and will pass Ashdown House which the National Trust describes as an Unusual Dutch-style house on the Berkshire Downs.  We get a splendid view of this very fine house making for great photos.  A short distance away is a collection of interesting farm buildings and stables although seemingly devoid of any human activity! Leaving that behind we make a short ascent up grassy Weathercock Hill and enjoy some super views all around us from the top.  A long easy track and Woolstone Down Gallops follow and at the end of this section we start to get views of the hill fort ahead at the same time enjoying views into the valley below. The Iron Age hill fort is Uffington Castle which we explore and get a good view of the curiously shaped Dragon Hill below us.  We follow a good path down and ascend the hill for a walk round it. This area is also famous for the Uffington White Horse a prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long, formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk;  we pass close by although at time of writing the immediate area round the monument is roped off for conservation reasons.All round here is a good place to see a red kite or two For the last part of the walk we return to The Ridgeway and will eventually come to the historic site of Wayland Smithy. A Neolithic chambered long barrow, it was once believed to have been the home of Wayland, the Saxon god of metal working.  We should have time to briefly explore this site before the final short section to the end of the walk. Walk distance: 11 miles. Picnic lunch. Leader Brenda Cameron

GENERAL INFORMATION: These walks are a great opportunity to see sites used and occupied by ancient people in the rolling countryside with great views across the Wiltshire and Oxfordshire downs. Walkers on all three routes will have the chance follow in the footsteps of bronze age man, who used the Ridgeway to travel across England on higher, drier land. Along it’s route are many historical sites. We will visit Uffington ‘Castle’, which occupies the summit of Whitehorse Hill, and is a rare and outstanding example of a large Iron Age Hillfort. The famous White Horse is the oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain, perhaps over 3,000 years old and Wayland’s Smithy, is a Neolithic chambered long barrow, that was once believed to have been the home of Wayland, the Saxon god of metal working.