Walbury Hill and Combe Gibbet

Walbury Hill is the highest chalk hill in England at 297m, crowned by the vast ramparts of Walbury Camp hillfort, with the macabre silhouette of Combe Gibbet on the next rise along the ridge. This is the big-sky end of the North Wessex Downs — from altitude you get the scarp dropping 150m to a quilt of Berkshire farmland stretching to the horizon, and the gibbet makes a stark, unusual foreground for sunrise work, especially in frost or snow. A rough byway runs along the ridge between two free car parks, so access is trivial for the reward. The caution is the same as every great scarp in the south: Combe Gibbet is a well-used Thames Valley hang gliding and paragliding site, flyable in northerlies, and model glider pilots use it too. Scan the sky and the rigging area before every battery; unpowered wings have priority and appear fast and silent along the ridge. The land is farmed downland with open access on the hill itself — stay off crops, TOAL from the byway verges or access land, and mind sheep. Wind at nearly 300m with no shelter is always a notch stronger than the forecast valley figure.