On the soldiers' trail

Sue Gearing enjoys a close encounter with the country's oldest chalk horse and explores the secrets of the army's training ground near the ghost village of Imber

HIGH open downland, wide- spread views, wild flowers, butterflies and birds surr- ound the famous Westbury White Horse, the oldest of all the Wiltshire horses, and it's all yours on this easy circular walk.

It starts above the horse and follows the Mid Wilts Way and the Wessex Ridgeway before a drop downhill to a pretty church in a wooded valley at the back of Bratton.

Dogs can enjoy themselves but need to be kept on a lead up on Bratton Down. There are a few stiles. Walking is on downland paths, along the Imber Range Path, quiet village paths and fields.

START

Beside an information board about the White Horse, said to be the oldest in Wiiltshire, go through a kissing gate and out to the edge of the hill to get a great view of the horse.

1. HORSE VIEW

There's another information board before you turn left along the hill edge until you reach a toposcope at 754 feet above sea level, showing distances to various landmarks. Continue on (don't turn back up) with the hill edge on your right and descend into a bushy hollow and then continue on the narrow grassy path and go up and over a stile. You are on the Wessex Ridgeway and Mid Wilts Way. After the stile, maintain direction with the hill edge and fence on your right. Continue through to another field and carry on. At the fence corner, turn left up across the field and cross a stile at the top.

2. LANE

Reach the lane you may have come up from Westbury. Turn left uphill. At a junction with a large chalk quarry on the right, go straight ahead on the Imber Range Path.

3. RANGE

Turn left at the hut at the range entrance and walk along the wide stony track. Since the 1940s, the army's vast Imber Range on Salisbury Plain (16,000 acres) has been closed to the public. For a few days each year, from December 18 to January 4, and on selected bank holidays, the roads across the plain are opened to the public. The Imber Range is a region of poachers and gunfire, of army tanks and abundant wildlife, of descending paratroopers and manouevres, and of numerous butterflies.

You are turning back on yourself and may be able to see soon the car park over on your left. Ignore a side-path and byway, and pass a farm on your left.

4. FARM

A few minutes past the farm, take the first bridleway on your left heading towards the hill edge again. Go through a gate and the path continues to wind its way towards the hill edge. Continue on, dropping gently between banks of grasses and wildflowers. Reach a wooden gate across the path. Don't go through.

5. HILL EDGE

Turn up right and now walk along the edge of the hill with a fence on your left, getting lovely views over Bratton and the church settling in the wooded valley. Go through a gate and continue on with the fence on your right. Some way along, watch for the footpath arrow sending you left on a grassy path down the side, heading towards the wooded valley and church. Keep on down and, as you near the foot, make sure you stay over to the left, so that at one point you have a line of bushes and trees on your right. Go through a metal kissing gate ahead (not left). Go along a narrow path and then follow an arrow left. Don't go through a second kissing gate. Walk along with a steep wooded valley down on your left. Come to the church on your right.

6. CHURCH

St James's is a pretty, tranquil church in a beautiful setting. It used to be at the heart of the community of Littlestoke, but the rest of the hamlet has disappeared and resettled in what is now Bratton. The church was almost entirely rebuilt in about 1400. Go down the stone flag church path and out of the wrought-iron gate. Carry on downhill to cross a stream and then climb steeply up on the attractive cobbled and flagged path all the way to a junction with a lane in Bratton.

7. BRATTON

Turn right going past houses and then at the oratory of St Giles, bend left on the lane and eventually reach the main road in the village. Turn right to the village store/post office and the Duke pub on the other side of the road, an attractive old inn created from three cottages (curiously, it is a pub not marked on the Ordnance Survey map). Continue past the Duke for a few yards and, at the memorial cross, turn off the road and then turn left on the footpath going along the back of the pub, passing a school on your right. Reach a road near the school entrance and turn left. Go on to pass a Baptist chapel on your right and then turn right down a public footpath. Come out to a crossroads of paths opposite a side entrance to the chapel and turn left on a Tarmac path under trees. This leads on past pretty cottages to Bury Lane. Turn right passing Scott's Farm.

8. THATCH COTTAGE

Reach a crossing lane with a beautiful thatched cottage opposite. Go ahead following the footpath down the side of the cottage. This leads into a field. Maintain your direction. The downs are up on your left. Continue on a path all the way to the right corner of the field and cross a stile. Follow the path on and go over another stile under a willow and on, as before, along the left edge of the field which may be rather overgrown. Cross a stile to a small yard by a modern barn/shed. Go straight across on a small path alongside an allotment. Cross another stile on to a lane and turn left, now back on the Mid Wilts Way. Turn left on the lane and come back on to the main road.

9. MAIN ROAD

Cross with care. Follow the bridleway opposite along the left hedge, climbing. After a few minutes reach the corner. Don't go ahead into the next field but bear right on a broad grassy swathe, still climbing. At a choice of paths, take the right-hand one – the Mid Wilts Way – which takes you up steeply towards Bratton Camp.

10. BRATTON CAMP

Bratton Camp, also known as Bratton Castle, is the site of the Battle of Ethandun, and one of a group of Iron Age defences around Salisbury Plain. Within the centre of the hillfort a much earlier monument can be seen – a Neolithic long barrow dating from between 2,500 and 4,000 BC.

Climb up on to the bank of the camp, continue on along the edge and then bend round left and come along above the White Horse – you can even touch his ear. Carry on and make your way out of the camp area and across to the car park.

The Duke, Bratton, open daily. Tel: 01380 830242.