Alton Barnes White Horse & Milk Hill

Wiltshire's most photogenic chalk horse gallops across the scarp of Milk Hill, the county's highest point, above a patchwork of the Vale of Pewsey that turns properly painterly in evening light. Aerials give you the horse square-on — impossible from the ground — with Adam's Grave long barrow on the neighbouring summit and, in crop circle season, whatever has appeared in the fields below; this valley is the world capital for them. The legal picture needs care rather than fear. The downs here are the Pewsey Downs National Nature Reserve and SSSI, so the courteous, correct approach is to TOAL from the byway or car park margins at Knap Hill rather than from the reserve grassland itself, then fly at height over the scarp. Salisbury Plain's danger areas and byelaw-controlled training land lie a few kilometres south across the vale — stay north of the Kennet & Avon canal line and you're clear, but check NOTAMs because military helicopters transit the vale low and often. Skylarks nest on the down in spring; keep height then. Wind hits the scarp face and climbs, so expect lift and rotor right where you want the horse shot. Quiet midweek; hang gliders use Milk Hill on good days — they have priority, don't share the slope with them.