SE500: The White Horse of Uffington

Location

Oxfordshire/Berkshire border

OutdoorLads shares the exact meeting point with people who have signed up, closer to the date. See the OutdoorLads listing for details.

About this event

This walk has been conceived, written & illustrated by Frankie Bruce, who has pioneered the idea of challenging hill walks in the relatively flat south-east of England for OutdoorLads. Our grateful thanks to Frankie for preparing the event for us.-----------------------------------------------------------------This is a spectacular walk taking in the very best of the White Horse hills, on mostly good tracks. The walk takes in ancient history as well as manor houses and passes race horse gallops. Do have a look at Frankie's photos and the special video he has prepared for this walk below.This walk is part of the SE500 series, covering a slightly longer distance and more ascent than your average hill walk. In total, over 500 metres of ascent are covered, which should help you burn off an average of 2100 calories.The walk begins with a circle of Woolstone Wells valley, and a steep ascent onto the Dragon’s Hill. This is a mound which is bare on top, exposing the chalk, as no grass will grow here. Legend has it this is because the blood of a dragon was spilled here.We then circle the White Horse of Uffington to gain the very best views of this site. This is a huge chalk figure of a horse in the hillside, dating from the Bronze Age around 4000 years ago. It is 114 metres long – a colossal and well-known site. It is thought it was of importance to the ancient Celts. Another rumour was that the horse was created by King Alfred in celebration of a battle victory, but it has actually been dated as much older than that.There is evidence of other fortifications in the smaller humps nearby, which date from the Iron Age. Our route climbs onto Uffington Castle with its fortification mounds, itself an Iron Age hill fort which was built on top of the Bronze Age one. Descending from the fort, the route crosses ancient ditches below Woolstone Down Gallops, a training ground for the finest race horses. The route continues over gently rolling hills and fields to Weathercock Hill to Ashdown Park (National Trust). The house was built by Lord William of Craven in the 1660s. We follow paths through the woods with a good view of the house.We then turn north and head up over Odstone Down and continue for two miles over rolling downs. Where the track turns left, look across the field to Wayland's Smithy, an atmospheric neolithic warrior’s long barrow burial ground. This is about 5500 years old! Wayland or Wolund was named after a god in Norse mythology.The route descends to Ashbury village, with its quaint thatched cottages, pub, village shop and café and manor house. There may be an opportunity for an afternoon break stop here. We then ascend most of the way up Odstone Hill with good views north west.The ornate Compton Beauchamp House, a Baroque style stately home, was originally a moated manor house built by Sir Thomas Fettiplace in 1507. Nearly there! The return rises above Woolstone Village up the hill to start, using the path in the access land to the left of the road. Check out the route on OS Maps here.View a video of a summertime reqi of this walk here.StagesS. Start Car Park  20.5Km distance; 512m ascent to go1. White Horse Hill Trig Point 2.1K 140m completed; 18.4K 372m to go2. Weathercock Hill 7.6K 209m / 12.9K 303m3. Wayland's Smithy 12.3K 300m / 8.2K 212m4. Odstone Hill  15.6K 368m / 4.9K 144m5. Finish Car Park 20.5K 512m completedDogsDogs are welcome on this event, but be aware that we may need to walk through fields with cattle & other livestock, at which point they must be on a lead. Please be sure that your dog can cope with what is a fairly long & challenging walk.Photo credits - all photos & the video taken by FrankieB and may be reused by OutdoorLads.