Dragon Hill is a small hillock immediately below the Uffington White Horse 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

es of Uffington and Woolstone in the English county of

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire. Dragon Hill is a natural chalk hill with an artificially flattened top (on the scarp slope of White Horse Hill); according to legend,

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

slew the

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

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. Ch ...

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 is com ...

spilled. It has been suggested as some sort of

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

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 () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

, 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. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

song " Cloudbusting".
File:DragonHill and Manger.jpg , Looking downhill toward Dragon Hill and The Manger from just below the Uffington White Horse File:Dragon Hill 20040424.jpg , A panoramic view toward Dragon Hill (centre); the White Horse is on the right File:White Horse Hill & Dragon Hill c.jpg , White Horse Hill and Dragon Hill (right)

References

External links

* Hills of Oxfordshire History of Berkshire Iron Age sites in England National Trust properties in Oxfordshire Vale of White Horse Archaeological sites in Oxfordshire {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub