The Vale & Downland Museum - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

The Ridgeway in Oxfordshire stretches 85 miles from Overton Hill near Avebury, Wiltshire, to Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring, Buckinghamshire. It has been used for 5000 years by many different groups of people; travelers, farmers, and armies. Today it is popular with walkers, runners, cyclists, horse riders, and disabled people using mobility scooters. One of the good trekking destinations and also a beautiful place flourished with natural beauty.

Uffington ‘Castle’, which occupies the summit of Whitehorse Hill, is a rare and outstanding example of a large Iron Age hillfort. The famous White Horse is the oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain, perhaps over 3,000 years old. It consists of a large enclosure, measuring about 220 metres by 160 metres, surrounded by a wide chalk-stone bank or inner rampart about 12 metres wide and 2.5 metres high, and formerly lined with sarsen stones.

The famous White Horse is the oldest chalk-cut hill figure in Britain, perhaps over 3,000 years old. Nearby Dragon Hill, a natural mound about 10 metres high, is named for its association with the legend of St George.

Uffington 'Castle', which occupies the summit of Whitehorse Hill, is a rare and outstanding example of a large Iron Age hillfort. It consists of a large enclosure, measuring about 220 metres by 160 metres, surrounded by a wide chalk-stone bank or inner rampart about 12 metres wide and 2.5 metres high, and formerly lined with sarsen stones. It covers about 32,000 square metres and is surrounded by two earth banks separated by a ditch with an entrance in the western end.

Wayland's Smithy is an atmospheric historic site about a mile's walk along the Ridgeway from the Uffington White Horse. This two-phase Neolithic tomb was a mortuary structure of stone and wood. After a short period of disuse, this was encased within a second, larger, barrow double its height, which remained in use for about 100 years. Archaeologists have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental

Farmer Gow's is a small livestock farm in a beautiful Oxfordshire countryside setting in the Vale of White Horse. It is an Activity Farm with lots of indoor and outdoor farm activities for the kids, from chick handling and ferret walking to hay bale climbing and tractor rides. It was one of the iconic attraction in this area and also it will be a new experience for visitors.