Uffington: White Horse Hill

The Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle

The Uffington White Horse is the most impressive chalk hill-figure in Britain.

Though on the Berkshire Downs, the White Horse has been in Oxfordshire since county boundary alterations in the 1970s. With its uniquely elegant lines, at around 3000 years old the Horse is now thought to be the oldest hill figure in the country.

The image is a stylised representation of a horse (some would say dragon) some 114 metres (374 feet) in length. Until 1995, the Uffington White Horse was thought to date from the Iron Age. However, in the 1990s a new dating technique called optical stimulated luminescence dating (OSL) was developed. This technique can show how long soil has been hidden from sunlight. As the lines of the horse consist of chalk-filled trenches dug in the hillside, it has been possible to apply OSL testing to the soil between the lower layers of that chalk. This revealed the Horse to be some 3000 years old, dating it to the late Bronze Age.

Images similar to the outline of the Horse have been found on coins from that period, and it is thought that the figure represents a horse goddess connected with the local Belgae tribe. The goddess is generally believed to be one form of Epona, worshipped throughout the Celtic world.

The horse was ritually scoured every seven years under the jurisdiction of the local Lord, who had to fund the event. The festival - for that is what it became - could last for over three days and consisted of fun and games, traditional cheese rolling, wrestling and other pastimes. The focus of the games was in the enclosed earthen banks of Uffington Castle, an Iron Age hill fort towards which the White Horse seems to be galloping when viewed from the air. The cheese rolling was held on the steep sided valley known as The Manger, the place where the horse was said to feed on moonlit nights. The festival, including a ‘scouring’ of the Horse (dressing it with fresh chalk) was recreated by the villagers of Uffington in 2000 as part of their Millennium Celebrations.

Uffington Castle, also on White Horse Hill, is an impressive Iron Age hill fort, once protected by timber walls on top of the surviving banks and ditches. It is likely that the tribe who created the White Horse once lived within this hill fort. The entrance to the hill fort was via the Northwest, protected by an earthen passageway that would have been further protected by wood. The castle was excavated in 1850 when evidence of the wooden structure was found, along with an Iron Age coin of the Dobunni tribe. Some researchers believe that the castle marks the site of the battle of Badon, Arthur's great victory over the Saxons. This is probably due to the important strategic position of the castle close to the Ridgeway. There is little evidence to suggest this is the case.

Detailed excavations have taken place on the Hill since 1989. The earlier ones were conducted by Oxford Archaeology, mainly to establish the age of the Horse, and in 1994 and 1995 the Continuing Education Department of Oxford University ran summer schools excavating within the Hillfort as part of their Ridgeway project. You can read more about the archaeological research here. The finds have been evaluated and a detailed survey has now been published under the title 'Uffington White Horse and its landscape'. The book is Monograph 18 in an Oxford Archaeology series called Thames Valley Landscapes, and is fascinating reading. (there are more details on the Publications page of this site)

White Horse Hill is situated just off the B4507, about half way between betweetween Wantage and Swindon. Follow signs to a car park which has been created in a former chalk pit; the Horse is then a short walk away. The White Horse and nearby Waylands's Smithy are in the care of the National Trust. Entry is free. There are no permanent visitor facilities. When visiting, please remember to lock your car and place any valuables out of sight.

You can find out more about the White Horse by visiting the Museum.