Milk hill sits amongst a small range of sweeping hills just a few miles south west of Marlborough, this hill was not going to be a difficult one to visit but it was going to be interesting as Milk hill is regarded as a bit of a celebrity due to its links to UFO sightings and frequent appearances of crop circles, it also has a rather cool feature carved into one side but more about that later.
The drive to Milk hill took me about 90 minutes from Portsmouth, driving up the M27, M3, A34 then along the A303 to Andover. after coming off the A303 I took the smaller roads through the villages of Ludgershall, Upavon and Alton Barnes finally arriving at the car park.
Leaving the car park I walked across the road and through a gate, heading south west I passed through the first of many fields full of sheep. Through another gate and yet another gate I was now on open ground and I followed a path over some ancient earth works and up the first of today's hills, this hill is called Walkers hill and already the views on this walk were magnificent. Standing on top of Walkers hill I could see for miles towards the east, south and west, below me sat Alton Barns and in the distance were Upavon and the village of Pewsey. I took some photos here and soon moved on.
The path now took me west and soon I was in sight of the feature I had mentioned earlier, a giant white horse carved into the side of the hills, the horse is a rather nice looking horse, very bright in the sunlight, the path took me right over his back and past his ears, I have never been so close to a white chalk horse before, after passing the horse I entered into another large open area full of sheep.
I stopped off in this field to take a few time lapse movies and have a cup of tea while still surrounded by sheep, there were a lot of paragliders using the hills and a take off point so I watched them soaring overhead, I found it amazing that there could be so many in the sky and they never seem to collide.
After my flask of tea I moved onwards to the actual highpoint, it was situated in a field so had to nip over the fence briefly to get a quick look, Milk Hill is the only one of my high points with a point of a meter in its height, this is because neighboring Tan hill is roughly the same height (294mts) and for years it was unknown as to which was the highest, so the TV program Country File conducted a survey and it turns out that Milk Hill was 25cm higher, so I was happy to conquer Milk Hill at 294.25 meters. I didn't stay long as I was not sure if I was allowed into that field so I made my way back to the main path and headed north and then east around the edge of the field.
Soon the path started to slope back downhill and it was not long until I could see the car park in the distance, I still had to head through 2 more fields of sheep and across the road and back to my car. Before I left the area I drove down to the base of the hill under the white horse to get a few more photos.
Milk hill is in a beautiful part of the world and I really recommend a visit, it is not a difficult walk and the views are stunning so get out there and explore the area.
Here is the time lapse video I shot around Milk Hill -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcVwy-UOLnc&feature=youtu.be
The drive to Milk hill took me about 90 minutes from Portsmouth, driving up the M27, M3, A34 then along the A303 to Andover. after coming off the A303 I took the smaller roads through the villages of Ludgershall, Upavon and Alton Barnes finally arriving at the car park.
Leaving the car park I walked across the road and through a gate, heading south west I passed through the first of many fields full of sheep. Through another gate and yet another gate I was now on open ground and I followed a path over some ancient earth works and up the first of today's hills, this hill is called Walkers hill and already the views on this walk were magnificent. Standing on top of Walkers hill I could see for miles towards the east, south and west, below me sat Alton Barns and in the distance were Upavon and the village of Pewsey. I took some photos here and soon moved on.
The path now took me west and soon I was in sight of the feature I had mentioned earlier, a giant white horse carved into the side of the hills, the horse is a rather nice looking horse, very bright in the sunlight, the path took me right over his back and past his ears, I have never been so close to a white chalk horse before, after passing the horse I entered into another large open area full of sheep.
I stopped off in this field to take a few time lapse movies and have a cup of tea while still surrounded by sheep, there were a lot of paragliders using the hills and a take off point so I watched them soaring overhead, I found it amazing that there could be so many in the sky and they never seem to collide.After my flask of tea I moved onwards to the actual highpoint, it was situated in a field so had to nip over the fence briefly to get a quick look, Milk Hill is the only one of my high points with a point of a meter in its height, this is because neighboring Tan hill is roughly the same height (294mts) and for years it was unknown as to which was the highest, so the TV program Country File conducted a survey and it turns out that Milk Hill was 25cm higher, so I was happy to conquer Milk Hill at 294.25 meters. I didn't stay long as I was not sure if I was allowed into that field so I made my way back to the main path and headed north and then east around the edge of the field.
Milk hill is in a beautiful part of the world and I really recommend a visit, it is not a difficult walk and the views are stunning so get out there and explore the area.
Here is the time lapse video I shot around Milk Hill -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcVwy-UOLnc&feature=youtu.be
