Fyfield Downs

With the world’s largest prehistoric stone circle and Europe’s largest manmade hill (likewise many thousands of years old), Avebury, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, draws huge numbers of tourists (both Brits and international visitors) to this corner of central Wiltshire. Just as well, then, that it manages to accommodate all those people with an ease and relaxed atmosphere very different from Stonehenge, 15 miles south, a visit to which is sadly regimented and restricted these days.

With all those people in the area, I’m relieved (in a selfish kind of way) that the wide, open downs between Avebury and Marlborough, six miles east, are off the radar for most tourists and local residents alike, as they offer some unusually varied, rewarding and very peaceful hiking opportunities. At their heart is the protected Fyfield Down National Nature Reserve (created in 1955, and one of Britain’s oldest). Included in the UNESCO site, the reserve and surroundings boast a fascinating mix of gentle natural beauty, geological wonder and mysterious prehistoric monuments.

Fyfield and Marlborough Downs cover an area of about twenty square miles, and by Wiltshire standards are relatively remote. Although a couple of roads skirt them, the downs themselves are crossed only by footpaths and tracks, which means you can walk for hours and see only a few walkers and the odd bike.

There are three main access points to the downs with easy parking: Avebury village to the southwest, Hackpen Hill to the north, and near the end of the road to Manton House in the southeast. The logical place for non-local hikers to start is Avebury (which I’ll be blogging about soon). You’ll need the best part of half a day to see the main prehistoric sites there thoroughly, but by finishing an Avebury tour with Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Burrow and the Sanctuary, you’re in the right place to explore the downs the rest of the day, via The Ridgeway. Often touted as Britain’s Oldest Road, people have been following this ancient track since about the time Avebury and Stonehenge were built.

The 87-mile-long Ridgeway National Trail (one of the fifteen official long-distance trails in Britain) starts right here, on the A4 opposite one of Avebury’s less immediately compelling sights, the Sanctuary, 2 miles southeast of Avebury village. Follow the wide, chalky track up onto Overton Down. Continue straight ahead at a crossroads with a track leading from Avebury in the west into the depths of Fyfield Down, and about 500 meters later, a gate on the right leads into one of the two free access areas of the National Nature Reserve.

Walkers are free to roam within the fenced boundaries of the access area, but most people come here just to visit The Polisher, one of Avebury’s smallest but most intriguing prehistoric relics. From the gate, bare half right across the rough grass, and you’ll immediately see a distinct, pointed boulder (a sarsen stone) ahead. Aim for this rock, pass it, and The Polisher is just beyond it, a largeish, flat-topped boulder nestling beside a small thicket of low-growing scrub. The straight, deep cuts on the boulder may not look like much, but they were made by prehistoric man perhaps six thousand or more years ago, while polishing and sharpening stone axe heads. It’s an extremely evocative place.

Continue ahead in the same direction for 20 or 30 meters and look out on the left for a pair of rocks, one of which is pierced right through by a round and beautifully cut hole, also thought to have been bored through the boulder thousands of years ago, although the reason why is unclear. Bear right, downhill into the head of the shallow valley below, littered with hundreds of sarsen stones. It’s these stones, deposited by meltwater from glaciers at the end of the Ice Age, which are the most important – and unique – feature of Fyfield Down National Nature Reserve.

There’s no access from here to the rest of Fyfield Down, to the east, so retrace steps to the crossroads of tracks 500 meters back down the Ridgeway, and turn left, walking eastwards past Delling Copse and into what I call the Valley of Boulders. The floor of this gentle, grassy coombe is covered in an even denser peppering of sarsen stones – the largest concentration in the UK. The rocks, which from a distance look for all the world like a flock of sheep, give the valley a unique appearance, but as well as being a fascinating geological oddity, they’re also home to a rich variety of rare lichens, so don’t sit on them! Deposits like this were also used as quarries from which some of the standing stones at nearby Avebury, Stonehenge, and other prehistoric monuments in the area were taken.

There’s no right of way through the upper half of the Valley of Boulders (which starts just southeast of Delling Copse), but plenty of feet have trodden a distinct grassy track along its floor, and progress is uninterrupted until the public footpath enters the valley after about ten minutes.

Continue down through the valley after the sarsen stone deposits thin out, and about two miles from Delling Copse you’ll come across the Devil’s Den, the only remaining part of a Neolithic passage grave, and one of the least-known, yet most impressive of the region’s prehistoric burial chambers. Unlike most of the monuments at Avebury, this rather eerie place lies in the middle of nowhere, a mile from the nearest road or dwelling. If you visit, you’ll very likely have the place all to yourself. There’s a special atmosphere about this place.

North of the Devil’s Den the grassy heights of Manton and Clatford Downs are crossed by several grassy gallops, where racehorses are put through their paces, and right beside one of the gallops, a mile southeast of Totterdown Wood (one of the few areas of old deciduous forest remaining on these downs), stands Long Tom. This tall, thin cigar-shaped standing stone is thought to be possibly a prehistoric menhir, but it looks like a much more recently erected boundary post to my untrained eye.

HEADING FURTHER NORTH

Continuing north along the Ridgeway, there’s an interesting (although recently created) dew pond right beside the track about 1½ miles north of the access point to Fyfield National Nature Reserve. Dew ponds are shallow, artificial pools dug out of the ground on chalk downs just like this. Since water soaks into porous chalk, the cavity must be lined with a layer of clay before it naturally fills, not with the morning dew of course, but with rainwater. They’ve been an essential part of the landscape on the downlands of southern England for centuries. These lands, although unsuitable for growing crops (the soil is too thin and barren), are perfect for rearing sheep or cattle. The animals not only feed on the grass, but by keeping it short allow rare and delicate, but not very tasty wild flowers (including orchids) to grow. Several other, much older, dewponds lie right beside this stretch of the Ridgeway, hidden in the undergrowth or obscured by trees.

About 300 yards south of the dew pond, a short track on the left leads to a small rectangular copse of trees standing at the head of a beautiful small coombe. The Wiltshire coombes (also created at the end of the last Ice Age - another blog is on the way for these! - are one of the natural glories of this corner of England, and while the region’s finest are a little further north (along the chalk ridges east of Swindon) and south (along the downs between Pewsey and Devizes) this little one, with a couple of solitary but photogenic sarsen stones on its slopes, is a quiet gem missed by most hikers and cyclists following the Ridgeway just five minutes away.

From the dew pond it’s a pleasant and easy two-mile tramp north to Hackpen Hill, the main access point to Fyfield Down from the north, and itself a very interesting place to explore. One of Wiltshire’s eight white horse chalk hill figures is carved into its slopes, and three shapely round copses of trees (planted during Victorian times to improve the look of the landscape) crown the crest of the ridge. Oh, and visit during summer, and with a bit of luck you may see a crop circle in one of the fields at the foot of the ridge. Hackpen Hill is one of the best places in Britain to see this mysterious (…or not…) occurrence, and designs of varying degrees of complication, er, crop up here most years during the summer.