WALKS IN WILTSHIRE at BROAD CHALKE ( & THE AUSTRALIAN MAP ON COMPTON DOWN) (4K)

In this episode of my series “Walks in Wiltshire”, I take a 6 mile circular walk (with a “detour”) from the village of Broad Chalke which is located about 8 miles West of Salisbury. Once again I am accompanied by my Whippet, Logan.

I parked my car at the church car park in Broad Chalke & started my walk with a wander through the village -beginning at thw Western end. This took me past some amazing buildings including Kings Old Rectory (origins from the 15th century) & Reddish House.

After a visit to the church, I headed North across the River Ebble towards the Northern part of the village and past the Queens Head pub to Tank Lane at which point I took a footpath North East into the countryside.

Walking along the side of a field, there were some great views down into the valley & the river. Eventually I met a byway and my route took me North, uphill with Little Down on my left.

At the top of a ridge, I joined up with the Old Shaftesbury drove (an ancient drover's road), and immediately followed it Westwards.

Just after Fox Covert, I took a detour North down a track to the bottom of Compton Down where I entered an area of land that is accessible to the public. Although there was a stile, it was challenging to get over & was not “dog friendly”!.

The next part of the walk involved an uphill climb, up the very steep North side of Compton Down to my next destination – The Australian Map! This is basically a map of Australia that was carved out of the chalk hill by Australian troops (who were camped nearby) at the start of WW1.

After a wander around the map (!), I retraced my steps back up to the Old Shaftesbury drove and after continuing Westwards for a short distance, I too a bridleway Southwards (downhill) that took me back to Broad Chalke.

My final destination was the Queens Head Pub back at Broad Chalke.

Map courtesy of Google Maps.
Aerial pictures courtesy of Google Maps.
Music from the Youtube Audio library.

Historic Maps NLS Maps 'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland'  https://maps.nls.uk/index.html

Information Sources: Wikipedia, Historic England & British History Online.

For further videos in the series, please go to:    / @daveford  
My Facebook page is:   / davescountrysidewalks  

I use an INSTA360 ACE PRO Action Camera & a Rode microphone (either a “Shotgun” or a Rode Wireless Go II) together with a Canon Powershot SX530 HS.