Some of my favourite photos

Wednesday 3 June 2015

30 days Wild - Day Three - Climb a hill

 On day 3 of 30 Days Wild we decided to climb a hill.
White Horse Hill is the highest point in Oxfordshire and from the top you can see over 6 Counties.

The White Horse is the oldest British chalk figure and is thought to date from 1000BC in late Bronze age. The horse is 374ft long. Nobody knows why it is there, but some say it could be a tribe emblem, or it could be religious and maybe based on the horse Goddess Epona.
It is difficult to see from on the hill itself, but you can see it from the main road down below.





On the top of the hill are the remains of Uffington castle. A Iron age hill fort dating from 300BC to AD 43.  It is a large enclosure surrounded by a 3m deep ditch. There would have been large wooden round huts inside.

Ditch surrounding Uffington castle


Panoramic view


The most interesting thing about being so high up was watching the Red Kites and a Kestrel from above and getting a chance to see things from their perspective. Sometimes they were exactly level with us.
We sat for a while on the top of the hill looking down across the countryside and listening to the Skylarks and Rooks.





Meadow Pipit
The steep rippled steps at the side of 'The Manager' are known as Giants steps and were formed by retreating permafrost during the Ice Age. The legend goes that The White Horse comes alive and feeds from The Manager during the night
The Manger - thought to be made by melting ice during the Ice Age.
Kestrel


Dragon Hill, in the right of the photo is a flat topped hillock. It is said that George slew the dragon here and the blood that was spilt prevents the grass on the top growing over the chalk.
It is also said that Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur is buried beneath the hill.




Rook

Jackdaws in flight



My favourite photo of the day


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