page_title: Uffington White Horse
section_title: Nearby prehistoric features
hierarchical_section_title: Uffington White Horse / Nearby prehistoric features
caption_attribution_description: English: view from the south road
context_page_description: The Uffington White Horse is a prehistoric hill figure, 110 m long, formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The figure is situated on the upper slopes of White Horse Hill in the English civil parish of Uffington, some 10 mi east of Swindon, 8 km south of the town of Faringdon and a similar distance west of the town of Wantage; or 2.5 km south of Uffington. The hill forms a part of the scarp of the Berkshire Downs and overlooks the Vale of White Horse to the north. The best views of the figure are obtained from the air, or from directly across the Vale, particularly around the villages of Great Coxwell, Longcot and Fernham. The site is owned and managed by the National Trust and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The Guardian stated in 2003 that "for more than 3,000 years, the Uffington White Horse has been jealously guarded as a masterpiece of minimalist art." The Uffington Horse is by far the oldest of the white horse figures in Britain and is of an entirely different design from the others inspired by it.
context_section_description: The most significant nearby feature is the Iron Age Uffington Castle, located on higher ground atop a knoll above the White Horse. This hillfort comprises an area of approximately 3 hectares (7.4 acres) enclosed by a single, well-preserved bank and ditch. Dragon Hill is a natural chalk hill with an artificial flat top, associated in legend with St George.
  Whitehorse Hill is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is a geological SSSI due to its Pleistocene sediments, and a biological SSSI as it has one of the few remaining unploughed grasslands along the chalk escarpment in Oxfordshire.
  To the west are ice-cut terraces known as the "Giant's Stair". Some believe these terraces at the bottom of this valley are the result of medieval farming, or alternatively were used for early farming after being formed by natural processes. The steep sided dry valley below the horse is known as the Manger and legend says that the horse grazes there at night.
  The Blowing Stone, a perforated sarsen stone, lies in a garden in Kingston Lisle, two kilometres away and produces a musical tone when blown through.
  Wayland's Smithy is a Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of the Horse. It lies next to The Ridgeway, an ancient trackway that also runs behind Uffington Castle, and is followed by the Ridgeway National Trail, a long-distance footpath running from Overton Hill, near Avebury,  to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire.
  In 2019, a group of workers laying water pipes near Letcombe Bassett unearthed an almost 3,000-year-old settlement that archaeologists believe to belong to the same community involved in the creation of the Uffington White Horse. The find includes the remains of 26 people whose skeletons suggest human sacrifice, tools, and animal bones.
caption: View from Dragon Hill road
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