Summary (by AI): I found Silbury Hill in Wiltshire to be a remarkable and fascinating ancient site, despite the intrusive road noise from the nearby A4.
Blog: Once again, the ABC process is really opening my eyes to different parts of the country and just how wonderful they are. Take Wiltshire, in particular. I’ve driven through it a million times on my way down to Devon and Cornwall, and I’ve popped in and out for various things over the years, but I’ve never truly stopped to have a proper look around or a good think about it.
I’ve always been aware that Wiltshire and Somerset share this mystical, ancient quality, and Silbury Hill is the perfect example of that. It was built around 2500 BC, making it incredibly old, but it also has a fascinating geology. From the outside, it might look like a simple mound of mud, but it’s far more complex than that. An earthwork that size, built primarily from the local chalk, would have likely collapsed by now if it were just a heap of soil. Researchers eventually worked out that it stays in place because of a clever lattice work of large chalk walls. These walls were built up, infilled with rubble, and then finished with a surface layer of mud over the top to hold everything together.
Unfortunately, its internal structure was badly compromised during the Victorian era. A couple of excavators did some fairly shoddy work that caused significant damage; one chap dug a massive shaft straight down through the middle from the top, while another bored in from the side. These tunnels weren't repaired at the time, allowing years of wind and rain to penetrate the heart of the mound. By 2003, the damage had become so severe that the top of the hill actually collapsed. It ended up being restored by pumping a load of liquid chalk into the voids—a process I find absolutely fascinating.
Because of that fragility, you’re no longer allowed to clamber all over it. This has the added advantage of preserving the local flora and fauna. The hill is covered in a specific type of chalk grassland habitat which is just fabulous. Because the soil is so nutrient-poor, common grasses and weeds can't really take over. Instead, it creates the perfect conditions for rarer plants like orchids. It’s also home to the rare Adonis Blue butterfly, a stunning little species that relies on the horseshoe vetch found in these specific chalky conditions.
It’s a really interesting place. I was looking for a "view" in Wiltshire, and since the spot where you pull over is literally called the Silbury Hill View Car Park, I thought, "Well, there we go." I could have easily wedged this into the history category or something else, but I liked the fact that I’d stopped in a car park with the word "view" in its name, so into the "View" category it goes.
The experience is perhaps slightly blemished by the fact that it sits right next to the A4. You get quite a lot of road noise as cars zip past, so it doesn't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but it’s a remarkable spot nonetheless.
The Map: