white horses

On our first full day in England, we ate a Hot Breakfast and hit the road for Avebury. But first, at the recommendation of the innkeeper, we followed the brown attraction signs to Uffington in order to see a white horse. The Uffington white horse was the first of its kind—a large horse carved into a hill and filled with chalk so it could be seen from a distance. 

The carving dates to the Bronze Age. The horse’s purpose is still debated, though it is thought to have belonged to the Uffington Castle, a village with a fortress and earthen moat (pictured above) that ring the hilltop. Until the nineteenth-century, the horse was cleaned annually in a ritual called the Scouring, where the villagers would pull the weeds and grass from the horse and refresh the chalk.

The National Trust maintains this site so we were able to drive to the top of the hill, park the car, and take an effortless hike through a sheep meadow to get to the horse. We spent a lot of time here, primarily because the views were so stunning. 

On a clear day, we could see forever. The boys took full advantage of strong winds and flew a kite on Dragon Hill, situated just below the white horse. An impression of this place will stay with me for a very long time.

The Uffington white horse is one of eight that remain (at one time there were 13). Another white horse is just outside of Calne, where we would be staying for the next two nights. Among all the things to do in the area—Bath and various other sites were nearby—climbing another hill to see a hill carving was not high on my list. But the following day, still fighting jet lag and exhausted after a wonderful morning in Bath, we took naps then had a pre-dinner hike up Cherhill.

The Cherhill white horse is the third oldest, but its origins are sketchy. This is county Wiltshire’s official story (courtesy of wikipedia): 

The figure at Cherhill was first cut in 1780 by a Dr Christopher Alsop, of Calne, and was created by stripping away the turf to expose the chalk hillside beneath. Its original size was 165 feet (50 m) by 220 feet (67 m). Dr Alsop, who was Guild Steward of the Borough of Calne, has been called "the mad doctor", and is reported to have directed the making of the horse from a distance, shouting through a megaphone from below Labour-in-Vain Hill. His design may have been influenced by the work of his friend George Stubbs, notable for his paintings of horses.

Dr. Alsop buried glass bottles in the ground to form the horse’s eye. For years the bottles were replace when they disappeared, but at some point, people stopped that tradition. Our hike was fantastic. We followed the footpath up the steep hill to a monument. The clever turnstile we climbed is pictured above. The boys ran the whole way. Some kind hikers told us the boys had been spotted near the castle. As at Uffington, there is no actual castle. No ruins. Just a moat that surrounded the village. The castle was vast; I said a silent prayer that the boys weren’t taking a lap. But then we saw them near the white horse. 

On our way down, we walked through the middle of a cattle herd, which was frightening. John had a stare down with a cow that thought s/he’d follow us. He raised his hand, and the cow backed off. Simon took this picture; it's more ground than cattle but you get a sense of what we were up against.
These hikes would form the basis for our trips theme: climb to the top of big hills.