This short but history-packed walk curves across the blustery flanks of the Berkshire Downs, leading to the 3,000-year-old Uffington White Horse.
The route is family-friendly and the views are huge throughout, with the Cotswolds outspread in the distance. What’s more, there’s an Iron Age hillfort to explore, too.
Looking to learn more about the history of Britain? Check out our guides to Britain's castles, churches and lighthouses.
Uffington White Horse walk
1.4 miles/ 2.2km | 1 hour | easy | 61m ascent
1. White Horse Hill Car Park
Head through the gate at the bottom of the car park then follow the line of the fence that snakes across the open hillside. The Vale of White Horse is already in full view to your left, backdropped by a vast swathe of rural Oxfordshire, while skylarks flute and flutter overhead.
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2. Memorial bench
When you reach a memorial bench – engraved with the aphorism ‘What is life but one grand adventure?’ – follow the wide grassy path as it bends uphill to the right, then shortly afterwards veers left towards a gate.
The prehistoric outline of the White Horse is already partly visible up ahead.
3. Dragonhill Road
Cross the minor road (Dragonhill Road) and continue upslope along the trail, soon arriving directly above the thin chalky trenches that make up the White Horse.
4. White Horse
This extraordinary landmark is Britain’s oldest white horse figure, essentially forming a giant piece of abstract Bronze Age art.
Up close, not only do you get a sense of the thought and precision that went into its creation, but you find yourself pondering the questions that archaeologists have long grappled with. Who designed it – and how? Was it a spiritual totem? A warning to outside tribes? Whatever the truth, it now looks out across a mighty panorama of farms, fields, wind turbines and woodlands.
5. Uffington Castle
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can take a downslope detour to reach the flat-topped hillock of Dragon Hill.
Otherwise, simply head uphill away from the White Horse, following the grassy track to the crest of the slope, where a trig point stands sentry over the colossal Iron Age hillfort of Uffington Castle. You’re now also very close to a section of the Ridgeway National Trail.
6. Meadow walk
After making a clockwise half-loop of the fort’s grassy banks, letting your mind wander back to the huts and defences that once stood here, leave the fort at the gap in its western wall and head back downhill towards a gate. Follow the path diagonally for 100 yards across a separate meadow.
7. Return to car park
Recross the road, then return across the field you started in, passing a toposcope on your way to the top of the car park.
Uffington White Horse map
Uffington White Horse – OS Maps walking route
Useful information
Uffington White Horse Car park
The National Trust’s White Horse Hill Car Park (members free; non-members £2 for two hours or £4 all day, coins or Paybyphone app only).
Terrain
Mainly smooth but can get muddy in places. It’s grazing land, so expect sheep poo! There are no stiles, although the route has ups and downs so would be hard going with a wheelchair or buggy.
Map
OS Explorer 170
Eat, drink and stay
The White Horse is an atmospheric old pub and hotel in the nearby hamlet of Woolstone, with a history dating back to the 1500s.
