Dragon Hill is a small hillock immediately below the
Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a prehistoric hill figure, 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 (in the cer ...
on the border of the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
es of
Uffington and
Woolstone in the English county of
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...
. In 1974 it was
transferred from Berkshire.
Dragon Hill is a natural chalk hill with an artificially flattened top (on the
scarp
Scarp may refer to:
Landforms and geology
* Cliff, a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure
* Escarpment, a steep slope or long rock that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevatio ...
slope of
White Horse Hill); according to legend,
Saint George
Saint George ( Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...
slew the
dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted a ...
here. A bare patch of
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. C ...
upon which no grass will grow is purported to be where the dragon's
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...
spilled. It has been suggested as some sort of
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
ritual site associated with the nearby hill figure.
It is part of the White Horse group of monuments in the care of the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
, and a Scheduled Monument in its own right.
Influence and cultural references
The hill was used as the setting for the music video of the
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...
song "
Cloudbusting
"Cloudbusting" is a song written, produced and performed by English singer Kate Bush. It was the second single released from her number-one album '' Hounds of Love'' (1985). "Cloudbusting" peaked at No. 20 on the UK Singles Chart.
Taking insp ...
".
References
External links
Uffington White Horse and Dragon Hill (Mysterious Britain & Ireland)
Hills of Oxfordshire
History of Berkshire
Iron Age sites in England
National Trust properties in Oxfordshire
Vale of White Horse
Archaeological sites in Oxfordshire
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