Walk in the footsteps of Celtic druids, Saxon kings and Victorian poets on an 87-mile prehistoric trackway that cuts across the chalk hills of southern England. It was 10:00 before I saw another person, a lone dog walker in the vicinity of Barbury Castle , an Iron Age hill fort that sits commandingly atop a rise on the Ridgeway , an 87-mile prehistoric trackway widely recognised as Britain's oldest road. I'd set off more than two hours earlier from Avebury in Wiltshire, revelling in my newfound solitude while, at the same time, finding it increasingly difficult to believe that I was walking through such a densely populated region.
From the backseat of a car, England's southern counties resemble an untidy muddle of motorways, high streets and housing estates. But up on the chalky heights of the North Wessex Downs, I was being treated to an infinitely more tranquil view. As I progressed north-east along the rounded ridgetops, I gazed out over distant villages, bushy hedgerows and rolling green pastures interspersed with yellow rapeseed fields.
A red kite soared overhead, and a cool breeze ventilated the earthen ramparts of 2,500-year-old Barbury Castle. It felt as if I'd serendipitously walked into the eye of a hurricane and found calm amid the chaos. The silence was therapeutic.
The Ridgeway is an ancient path that cuts diagonally across the chalk downs of southern England linking Overton Hill , a site of special archaeological interest in Wiltshire, with the prominent 233m su.