Tan Hill () is a hill north of Allington in the parish of

All Cannings All Cannings (pronounced "Allcannings") is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire, about east of Devizes. The parish includes the nearby smaller settlement of Allington. The southern part of the pa ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. Its summit is above sea level and is the second highest point of the

North Wessex Downs AONB The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better k ...

hill range (the adjacent

Milk Hill Milk Hill, located near Alton Priors east of Devizes, is the highest point in the county of Wiltshire, southwest England, at some above sea level (the adjacent Tan Hill rises to 294 m). It is the location of the Alton Barnes white horse ...

is 295 m high), and of Wiltshire. It is also the third highest point between

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and London. On 23 August 2009, the BBC programme ''

Countryfile ''Countryfile'' is a British television programme which airs weekly on BBC One and reports on rural, agricultural, and environmental issues in the United Kingdom. The programme is currently presented by John Craven, Adam Henson, Matt Baker ...

'' featured an item on analysis by

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

to determine whether Milk or Tan Hill is the highest. It was confirmed that Milk Hill is higher than Tan Hill. Along the north side of Tan Hill runs a section of The Wansdyke, an earthen rampart which runs east to west across much of southern England. The hill is frequently used by the Thames Valley Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club in conjunction with Milk Hill.

Hill figure and stone circle

Formerly, Tan Hill had a

hill figure A hill figure is a large visual representation created by cutting into a steep hillside and revealing the underlying geology. It is a type of geoglyph usually designed to be seen from afar rather than above. In some cases trenches are dug and r ...

of a white horse, sometimes called the Tan Hill Donkey because of its notably large head. Author Kathleen Wiltshire, in her book ''Wiltshire Folklore'', published in 1975, described the figure being still partly visible "on Tan Hill, though the legs have become quite overgrown... This pony or donkey is 75 feet from nose to tail, which stretches down much like that of the Uffington horse, and its head is very large." She went on to write that in "the 'valley' between Tan Hill and Rybury Camp stands a miniature

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The be ...

of nine upright sarsen stones about four feet in height, in the centre of which lies a prostrate stone, about the length of a man. A pathway leads up to the 'donkey' from the circle." The figure subsequently became known as Mrs Wiltshire's Donkey. Whilst Wiltshire placed the hill figure on Tan Hill, another later source described it on a "medium steep slope between Tan Hill and Ryebury Camp". The white horse was described as "overgrown" in 1964, with its legs having disappeared. In March 2002, local research by wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk confirmed the horse's existence and established the location of the stone circle, whose position had been misleadingly described in Wiltshire's book. The stone circle had been previously noted during an archaeological field investigation in 1973, but was thought likely to be a modern arrangement of field clearance boulders rather than a prehistoric monument. The path to the horse from the circle still existed in 2002, but no trace of the horse remained. However, in November 2004, vegetation and light conditions allowed the horse's shape to be discerned. In folklore, it was said locally that when the horse heard All Cannings' church clock strike midnight it went down to a dewpond above Cannings Cross to drink. One night it was supposedly so thirsty that it drank the pond dry, even though a dewpond is said never to dry up.

Views

Views are extensive from Tan Hill, ranging from Cheesefoot Head near

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

to the south-east to, in clear weather, the Black Mountains in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

to the north-west, making this, alongside neighbouring

, one of the most southeasterly points in the UK from which high mountain country can be sighted.

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...

and, further away, the

Mendips The Mendip Hills (commonly called the Mendips) is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running from Weston-super-Mare and the Bristol Channel in the west to the Frome valley in the east, the hills ...

and

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jur ...

are also clearly visible. According to computer-generated panoramas it should be possible to sight

Pen y Fan Pen y Fan () is the highest peak in South Wales, situated in the Brecon Beacons National Park. At above sea-level, it is also the highest British peak south of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia. It is the highest point (county top) of the historic cou ...

, highest point of the Brecon Beacons, in exceptionally clear weather.

References

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