Photogenic Landscapes and Historic Sites in Wiltshire

Wiltshire extends 50 miles north to south and 35 miles west to east, adjoining Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset. All the county has similar landscapes, of fields and woods; generally quite hilly, and split by several wide valleys, but with no particularly high land or overly dramatic natural features.

Contained within are about half of the North Wessex Downs (the remainder is in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire), a small part of the New Forest in the south, a narrow section of the Cotswolds in the north, most of Cranborne Chase and nearly all of Salisbury Plain. The latter two are extensive chalk plateaus - this rock underlies well over half of the county, part of a great exposure that stretches eastwards towards Dover, and is responsible for nearly all of Wiltshire's high ground. A number of slopes have been cut to create white chalk figures such as the horses at Chervil, Marlborough and Westbury. The county town of Wiltshire is Trowbridge; other major places include Swindon, Salisbury, Chippenham, Melksham and Devizes.


Wiltshire contains a reasonable variety of ancient places, spanning several millennia, though these are fewer in number than some adjacent counties, and is especially well known for its prehistoric and Neolithic sites. Most famous are Stonehenge and Avebury but there are dozens of lesser locations including burial mounds, ditches, hill forts, standing stones and pathways. The country has one cathedral (Salisbury), three ruined castles (Ludgershall, Old Sarum and Old Wardour), a dozen or more major stately homes - Longleat and Stourhead are the most visited - and a large number of old churches, though no ruined abbeys.