North Wessex Downs
England
2013

White Horse Hill


28. 6. 2013

Peter Schrammel

Weather

sunny

Interest 

***: long tour through the North Wessex Downs to the famous White Horse

Route

Oxford, 62m - Didcot, 51m - White Horse Hill, 262m - Oxford

Elevation gain

935m

Distance

114km

Timing

5 1/2h (1 + 2 3/4 + 1 3/4)

Stamina 

F

Difficulty 

0

Danger 

1

Visitor frequency 

d

Report

The famous White Horse is omnipresent in Oxfordshire. So, I wanted to see the real one. I left at 7am via Littlemore and following the A4074, which was a bit annoying although there was certainly little traffic compared to weekdays. At Clifton Hampden I crossed the Thames over an old stone bridge. I continued to Didcot, but I did not want to ride through Didccot. However, I missed the turn to the left and finally had to cross the train line Oxford-Didcot which led me straight on a bikepath to the centre of Didcot. I rode through sleeping residential areas via East Hagbourne and up Woodway Road. On dirt roads I reached the famous Ridgeway, an ancient road. The surfice was quite stony, a bit scary with my road bike. Finally I escaped down to a tarmac road to East Isley. From there I crossed under the motorway and continued to West Isley and on small roads up and down through woods and fields via Lilley to the A338. I took a short break next to a roadside monument before riding to South Fawley. Here the hills become steeper and the landscape more open. I cycled up to Sheepdrove farm. This part was not on my map and I only had sketches of the route to the White Horse hill. I took the wrong path and arrived down in Lambourn, which was not a problem, bu now I had to climb up the B4001 again to the ridgeway. That section of the ridgeway is an almost smooth dirt road, a bit steeper and more rugged towards the end. At 11.30am I reached the flat hill top of the White Horse hill, site of an iron age fort. Next to it there is an abstract chalk figure of a white horse dug into the edge of the hill. Hundreds of people were walking and sitting around up there. I followed the moat to a calm spot where I could see at least a part of the white horse. The full figure can only be seen from the air. Some paragliders were enjoying this experience. After a break I rolled down the steep hill to Uffington and followed small side roads between high hedges through the plains and finally over Boar's Hill back to Oxford.



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