Border Paths Around the Chutes

This walk explores the hilly and relatively deserted border country between Wiltshire and Hampshire, in what remains of Chute Forest. In medieval times vast tracts of woodland canopied an area stretching from Savernake Forest, in the north, to Salisbury, in the south, before swelling out again into the New Forest, providing a prime hunting ground for Norman and medieval kings.

The parishes of Chute and Chute Forest can be traced back to Norman times and it is believed that the ancient meaning of Chute is wood or forest. Habitation within the parishes at that time may well have been no more than a few cottages in a large clearing occupied by charcoal burners or peasants. Deforestation began in 1632 during the reign of Charles I (1600-49), who divided the area up among his favoured nobles. The result of this is still evident today, for there is no village in the generally accepted sense of the word, but a collection of five small hamlets - Upper and Lower Chute, Chute Standen, Chute Forest and Chute Cadley - which developed around what were once farms or country houses, such as Standen House and Chute Lodge.

The landscape is still well wooded with a mixture of copse, plantations, windbreaks or 'rows' and roadside plantings of beech linked by a sprinkling of hedgerow trees. The paths and byways you will follow on this walk explore in depth this quite remote area of Wiltshire, which rises to over 800ft (244m), affording splendid views south across Hampshire to the Isle of Wight.

The highest point of the walk is on the impressive Chute Causeway, which was originally part of the Roman highway from Winchester, in Hampshire, to Mildenhall, near Marlborough. It forms a great arc around some of the most attractive scenery in Wiltshire, for just north of the now paved road are deep combes and steep hills (such as Knolls Down). Some of these are so steep that the Roman road, which usually ignores natural obstacles, swerves to avoid the deep combe, known as Hippenscombe Bottom. At the eastern end of the Causeway is Conholt House, a large, early 19th-century building of grey brick. It was here during excavations in 1898, that a small terrace set with 12-16 inches (30-40cm) of flint, covered with layers of soil, clay and compacted chalk, was uncovered. Part of this terrrace appears to have been burned, which offers an explanation as to how the Romans built such straight roads - by lighting fires at both ends of the semi-circular section of the Causeway they could line up the columns of smoke to align their road.

What to look for

Explore Knolls Down and the ramparts of Fosbury Camp, an oval bivallate hill fort from the Iron Age, (defended by two concentric banks and ditches), enclosing 26 acres (10.5ha), and savour the views west along Hippenscombe Bottom into the heart of Wiltshire.

Where to eat and drink

Time your walk to coincide with opening time at the Hatchet Inn in Lower Chute, an idyllic, thatched 16th-century pub with low beams, a log fire in a huge inglenook and a varied menu listing hearty home-cooked food. Along the way, try the George in Vernham Dean for Greene King ales and traditional pub food.

While you're there

Visit the ruins of Ludgershall Castle, built during the late 11th century and later a royal castle and hunting palace used by Henry III in the 13th century. It fell into decay around the 16th century but you can still see some of the original large Norman earthworks, as well as more recent flint walling.