Ashbury to Bishopstone walk

Ashbury to Bishopstone via White Horse and Wayland's Smithy

Distance: 10.7 miles.
Time without long breaks: 6 hours.

Terrain: A steep climb up to the White Horse.
How to get there and back: Train to Swindon, No 47 bus to Ashbury. Return via same bus (or taxi) from Bishopstone to Swindon.
Pub breaks: The White Horse at Woolstone is three miles into the walk. The route ends at Bishopstone, which has the Royal Oak gastro pub and hotel, owned and run by a local organic farm.
More information: Buses run from Swindon bus station, which is three minutes walk from the station. There are only a few a day so you will need to co-ordinate times (check here). For a much shorter walk, the 47 stops at the Ridgeway after Ashbury, about a mile from Wayland's Smithy and 2 1/2 from the White Horse. If you want to finish the day at the Royal Oak, Swindon is just five miles away so an easy cab ride.

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This walk takes in two magnificent prehistoric monuments – the Uffington White Horse hill figure and the Neolithic long barrow known as Wayland's Smithy. Connecting the two is the ancient Ridgeway, which follows an old trading route. Near to the chalk figure is the curious Dragon Hill, as well as Uffington Castle, a large iron age hill fort. You also visit the picturesque villages of Ashbury, Woolstone and Bishopstone. There are impressive views from the top of the ridge spanning six counties.

Alight the bus at the Rose and Crown in Ashbury. Walk back past the pub and turn left up Church Lane to reach the 13th-century parish church of St Mary's, which includes a chapel dedicated to Evelyn Craven, a countess from nearby Ashdown House. The churchyard has an unusual long line of small gravestones, for which there seems no explanation. Return back down the lane and at the junction by the war memorial, turn right down Chapel Lane. The road bends right and comes out at a junction. Cross over and take the path opposite following the sign for the bridleway. You will pass a converted mill on your left and a mill pond on your right. When the track reaches a road, cross over and take the footpath opposite that heads up at an angle past a gate.

When you reach the next field, don't follow the path round to the right, but cut straight across aiming for the church at the hamlet of Compton Beauchamp. Go over a stile and through a gate. The gate to St Swithun's is on your right. The church, made from chalk, was built in the 13th century, but its interior was ornately decorated by the artist Martin Travers in the mid-1900s. After the church, you pass a house. Follow the track ahead until you reach a junction of lanes. Behind you, to your right, you will see Compton House behind its entrance gates. Walk up to the bend in the road ahead and go through the gate following the sign into a paddock. Cut across the field and go over the stile into the next one.

Go down the lane straight ahead. You will come to the White Horse pub, a good place for a break before the challenge of the walk up the hill ahead. Turn right at the pub and follow the lane uphill, passing the lane that leads to the church. You can catch a glimpse of the White Horse hill figure up on your left. When you reach the road junction, cross over and carry on straight ahead for a few yards and then turn left through a wooden gate and follow the path up the hill as it runs parallel to the road. Go through a gate at the top, passing a bench with great views of the vale below.

Walk back down to the road, cross over and take the steps opposite following the sign. Follow the path as it winds its way up the hill. When you reach a bench near the top, carry on up the grassy track ignoring the footpath sign on your left. The White Horse, one of the finest hill figures in Europe (see panel), is on your right. From here, turn left up the track towards the triangulation point. Then turn right and take a left to enter Uffington Castle, a substantial iron age hill fort, through a gap in the banks. You can walk along the ramparts but take care as it gets very windy up there! To leave the fort, look for some steps heading down on the other side, almost opposite to where you came in.

Not far beyond this, you will reach Wayland's Smithy on your right, a superb example of a neolithic long barrow (see panel). You might want to spend some time exploring this atmospheric site. On leaving, continue on the Ridgeway in the same direction as before. With a small wood on your left, you pass a turning for the D'Arcy Dalton Way and then further on reach a car park and a bus stop as the track crosses a road at Ashbury Hill. After this, the Ridgeway is noticeably less populated with walkers and has a more wild and remote feel. You pass a barn and outbuildings at a crossing at Idstone Hill, and just under a mile further on, by another crossing, you come to Ridgeway Farm.

Follow the track until it joins a lane by a house. Turn left and when you reach the road junction, by the sign for Nell Hill, turn left following the signpost to the village centre. Go straight ahead and down the steps and follow the narrow path around to the right. It runs between thatched houses before emerging at a road. Turn left for the bus stop, which is next to the village duck pond, for buses back to Swindon, or cross over into Cues Lane for Helen Browning's Royal Oak. The pub is run by an organic farm (Ridgeway Farm, which you walked past earlier) and serves food made from its local produce. If you are thinking of stopping over, it was awarded Inn of the Year 2022 by the Good Hotel Guide.

The path runs along the edge of a long field. At the end of the field, go through a gap in the hedge into the next one following the sign. The footpath is meant to cut across this field, but you may have to walk around it. Aim for a stile in a wooden fence on the other side. Carry on straight ahead going over two more stiles and keeping the farm to your right. After the farm, you join the D'Arcy Dalton Way long-distance footpath. The path then splits, with a bridleway going off to the left. Go straight on, over another stile and a small wooden bridge. Carry on along the edge of a field and continue along the track through the following two.

Follow the waymarker for the D'Arcy Dalton Way as the path bends around and goes into a further field. When you reach a lane, go straight across and over a stile following the footpath sign. Proceed along the edge of this cow field and carry on through the next two until you see a small wood ahead of you to your right. Just before you reach the trees, instead of going into the wood, go over a stile on your left. Cut across the corner of this field to a metal gate and go over a small wooden bridge. Cross over the stile and follow the path across three fields, keeping the hedge to your right. Aim for a stile at the end of the final field which comes out by a farm on the edge of the village of Woolstone.

With a gate to a car park on your right, cut across the field following the sign for the White Horse, which you can see ahead. The path goes up to a fence and car park, but take the left-hand track which comes out via a gate at a road. Instead of taking the bridleway ahead, turn left down the road (there is a raised path that runs alongside it) below the embankments. Below you is the dry valley known as The Manger. On your left, you will soon come to a mound called Dragon's Hill, which is associated with St George (see below). Climb the steps to top of the hill, which is probably a natural feature, for more sweeping views across the vale.

Take the steps as they descend from the castle. The path heads down, crossing over a chalk track. When you see a cattle grid and a fire gate ahead of you to your left, cross over the stile on your right into a field. Cut across the field and go over another stile to join the Ridgeway long-distance footpath, a National Trail and prehistoric trackway that runs from Avebury to Ivinghoe Beacon (see the panel on walk 9). Turn right. The track runs between hedgerows and soon crosses the Lambourn Valley Way, where there is an information board. About 1km further on, you come to another track crossing at the top of Knighton Hill.

About 500m from the farm, you pass a signpost on your left. Just past, this there is another sign on your right by a metal gate. Follow this track, as it heads down a gully between earthworks. With prominent mounds on your right, the track swings left and goes through a gate. Follow the grassy track with a raised bank on your right. The undulating land to your left is an ancient field system of strip lynchets. At the valley bottom, just past a sheep pen, there is a fork of tracks with a signpost indicating two ways to get to Bishopstone village centre. Take the right hand one through the gate and go through another gate at the end of the field to join a track.

The Uffington White Horse, thought to have been constructed between 1380 and 550 BC, is the oldest of the white horse hill figures in England. It has a distinctly different design to the others, leading to speculation that it may not depict a horse at all, but another animal – or even an imaginary beast such as a dragon. A similar image has been found on Iron Age coins, which indicates that it may have been a tribal symbol, perhaps belonging to whoever occupied Uffington Castle at the time. The horse is aligned with the sun, which overtakes it in midwinter, and some believe that it could be a representation of the mythological solar horse which carries the sun across the sky. According to lore, Dragon Hill, which sits below the carving, is where St George slayed the dragon (its blood stained the ground, leaving a chalk scar behind).

A mile and a half to the west of the White Horse, along the old Ridgeway path, lies Wayland's Smithy, a burial chamber that predates the hill figure by at least 2,000 years. Initially built as a timber tomb, it was rebuilt as a stone-chambered barrow, the remnants of which can be seen at the site today. The name Wayland comes from Wolund, a Saxon/Norse god associated with metal-making. One legend associated with the site is that resting horsemen using the Ridgeway who leave a coin on the stones will find their horses newly shod in the morning. Coins are still deposited in the cracks in the stones today for good luck. The site has been used by modern pagans for ritualistic purposes.

Both these evocative landmarks have had an influence on contemporary popular culture. Julian Cope recorded a track called Wayland's Smithy has Wings, while Radiohead used the location for the video for their song Pop is Dead. Locally-based band XTC chose the image of the Uffington White Horse for the cover of their classic 1982 double album English Settlement. KB

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Ashbury to Bishopstone via White Horse and Wayland's Smithy

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Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond