Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a large and mostly rural county in the west of England. The county contains large areas of rolling chalk downland and grazing farmland, including Salisbury Plain, a large expanse of downland used as a training area by the British Army.

For the visitor, Wiltshire is probably most significant because it contains several extremely important neolithic monuments, including the stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury, and the former settlement of Old Sarum

File:Wiltsmap.jpg

Map of Wiltshire

The following cities, towns and Villages may be of interest to visitors.

• Salisbury — this city has a splendid cathedral
• Bradford on Avon
• Chippenham
• Devizes - "a bustling market town with a heady brew of heritage and shopping" [1]
• Malmesbury
• Marlborough
• Melksham
• Swindon
• Trowbridge — Wiltshire's County town and administrative centre [2]
• Warminster
• Westbury — home to one of England's most famous hillside white horses

Villages

• Box — Site of the famous Box Railway tunnel and home to musicians Peter Gabriel & Midge Ure
• Bratton— Site of Bratton Castle (or Camp) an Iron Age hill fort.
• Castle Combe (pronounced coom) — a small pretty village north west of Chippenham
• Cricklade
• Lacock — a village dating back to the 13th century owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust [3], site of Lacock Abbey and the William Fox-Talbot museum [4]
• Pewsey — a large village with a main line rail station
• Wilton — a medium sized village to the west of Salisbury.

Other destinations

• Avebury
• Stonehenge

See

• The White Horses of Wiltshire - white horses created by removing the grass on hills to reveal the white chalk underneath. Most are a few hundred years old.

Do

• Visit Savernake Forest near Marlborough.
• Visit the nationally important museums in Devizes and Salisbury to find out more about the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site.