Ridgeway: Hackpen Hill to Avebury

Most of my walks are solitary outings - and I'm generally quite happy with it that way - it's as much about having time to clear my head in peace and quiet as it is about the physical exercise.

However for the summer solstice  this year I'd hatched a plan with a few friends from London to go and watch the sunset at Avebury, and, given the abundance of daylight hours I thought it might be nice to also fit in an early evening stroll.

We had taken the train to Swindon, and from there I proposed we take a taxi to Hackpen Hill, where there was a white horse we could take a look at, with the added benefit that this was one of the highest hills around, so we'd also get good views of the surrounding countryside. Well, half of that plan worked - we fell foul of the classic problem with these hill carvings that you need a bit of distance to see it properly. Still, the views were lovely, and the sky had a slightly surreal silvery blue quality to it.

In theory this was to be a very straightforward walk. We could follow the Ridgeway more or less south from Hackpen Hill, and then once we were roughly level with Avebury, we'd transfer to the "Wessex Ridgeway", which would take us the rest of the way into Avebury.

Simple, right? However, easy though that was, it was also a bit of a dog leg, and en route I started to feel that the walk was taking a bit too long. Given that we also had to get back to London tonight we might end up with very little time in Avebury itself. So I made an executive decision that we should take a shortcut, and switch to a more direct, but more minor path.

 So we left the Ridgeway at Monkton Down, and walked down the hill, following this more minor footpath. The first bit wasn't too difficult, descending an open hillside.

However at the bottom of the hill, the footpath seemed to get lost in a field of wheat. This rather slowed our progress as we tried to figure out where exactly it was beneath the waist high greenery, but it was at least quite fun, and presented us with some great photo ops.

We did eventually make it across the vast field of wheat, and after a brief pause in the field beyond for one of my walking companions to answer a pressing call of nature we eventually made it to the reassuringly well marked Wessex Ridgeway.

It was here that we encountered the first other people who were bound for Avebury, they looked a bit quizzically at us in our non-hippy-attire, and particularly me with my usual tweed, and an ice bucket with a couple of bottles of English sparkling chilling in it (yes I carried them all the way) but they seemed nonetheless welcoming and friendly, which seemed like a good sign.

By about 8:20 we finally reached the outer circle of Avebury, and although we still had a bit of time to spare before the sunset, the whole area was bathed in more of that slightly surreal light - now perhaps more golden than silver. It looked a bit magical and I for one was very excited to be here.

We did a partial tour of the perimeter in order to find a good spot to plant ourselves, but eventually followed the crowds to where most people seemed to be deciding to sit to watch the sunset, on a bank, facing west (of course!).

So at nearly 9, we sat down, got out our victuals, and settled in to watch the sunset.

The sunset itself may not have been the most spectacular I've ever seen, but the the location and the event made it special. Of course, most people who celebrate the summer solstice do so at dawn, not dusk, but there was still a healthy turn out to watch the setting sun too, and as a first time solstice observer I liked the very laid back, low key nature of it.

After the sun had fully set and we'd finished our picnic, we deemed it was time to head to the pub. We got chatting to a few other attendees on the way there. We obviously looked a bit out of place, but they were welcoming and friendly nonetheless. Again, a really lovely atmosphere here and I look forward to coming back next year.