Devizes White Horse to Furze Knoll (Big South Christmas)

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This circular walk, on the western edge of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, starts and ends close to the Millennium White Horse, one of the 8 remaining white horses of Wiltshire, which is the most recently carved (1999).  There were originally 13 of these these horses carved into the chalk hillsides, some dating back many hundreds, though some have long since grown over and been lost beneath the turf.

Walking to the North West of the Horse, we visit Oliver's Castle, the site of an Iron age Hill fort, and the location where the Battle of Roundway Down was fought in 1643 during the English Civil War.

We then travel east from Beacon Hill, passing Kings Play Hill before arriving at Morgan's Hill and Furze Knoll, and whilst the actual reason for the existence of this well known clump of trees has been long lost, there are some that suggest that Furze Knoll and Morgan's Hill are both in some way associated with Arthurian legend, being linked to Merlin's Mound (near Marlborough) both by the Wansdyke Path and by the circular Ley of the Barbury Ring.

From here we follow the Wansdyke Path  to Roughridge Hill before dropping down into the valley at Bishops Cannings and following the path alongside the Kennet and Avon canal back to Devizes.

Photo Credits: All photos taken by the event leader and permission is granted to ODL for further use.

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