Bratton to Middle Hill via Warminster

We had intended to finish today's leg at Warminster and to catch the train home from there, but we reached Warminster with oodles of time to spare before we could use our prebooked (cheap!) tickets, so we decided to walk a little further. It was another glorious day and the whole walk was lovely - we look upon the stretch beyond Warminster as a little taster of things to come whenever we manage to get back to the Wessex Ridgeway.

Julian needed to leave for work and we were awake early (as always) so we had an early breakfast and left Lynnwood Lodge around 8.30am. It had been a more than adequate B&B and at £50 for the two of us was extremely good value. Do note though that Julian only offers a continental breakfast and usually only does weekends. We climbed up the road back to Bratton Camp, overlooking the Westbury White Horse, and explored the ramparts a little. We had the place just about to ourselves this morning and it was delightful.

We continued along the edge of the escarpment on a pleasant path, with good views back to the White Horse and down to the cement works and to Westbury, then we climbed back to our friend the Imber Range Perimeter Path, but even that seemed more pleasant this morning. It was less wide and wooded, passing a chalk quarry (for the cement works in the valley) on the left hand side. In any case, we weren't on the perimeter path for long, taking a path back to the escarpment edge.

We came to a magnificent section of woodland, with an avenue of massive beech trees, then returned to the Imber Range Perimeter Path which crossed attractive downland, with good views and masses of wildflowers in the fields to our right, and a delightful young bullock.

We reached the western limit of the ranges and turned left by the warning red flag. Some of the warning signs had become misangled, which made it look as if they were telling us not to venture on the path we were using, which was slightly disconcerting, especially since there were sounds of gunfire in the distance. However we were definitely on the right side of the line that marks the edge of the danger line - both on the map and on the ground - and I lived to write this page! The guidebook at this stage talks about the path swooping to a hollow - it was a very steep swoop in places. After descending came the ascent, though this was much more gentle, and after passing through some trees we emerged onto a track which we followed to the brow of the hill, past farm buildings and more attractive cows and bullocks.

We reached the road onto which the official route of the Wessex Ridgeway turns left, but we turned right and descended into Warminster. After yesterday's rather hungry day, I was eager to find some proper food. It took us a little while to find the right part of Warminster for shops and cafes, but we got it right in the end, and we opted for Rosie's Cafe, a slightly odd place in a basement. However our baked potatoes with salad were lovely.

It was quite straightforward - we climbed up the minor road towards the Warminster Training Camp, crossing the railway line and various barracks and other military buildings, rejoining the official route partway up the hill. I photographed the signs at the entrance to the Training Camp then noticed, maybe 100 metres further up the hill, rather fierce 'no photography' signs - oops! There was a pavement all the way so it was pleasant enough, and there were good views to Battlesbury Hill Fort above us.

The gradient of the climb increased the further up the road we got, and eventually we turned right onto a path which climbed steeply up to the hill fort. Battlesbury Hill Fort is a large and impressive place. The official route goes around the edge, but there we took an obvious path through the middle, past a trig point at 208 metres.

Lovely views opened up to Middle Hill (complete with strip lynchets) and Scratchbury Hill beyond, but the way down from Battlesbury Hill Fort was not immediately obvious. We followed the outer fortification to the left, which was the right thing to do, then we took what was an obvious track in the direction we wanted to go in - so obvious that we climbed over a challenging-to-climb gate without considering the possibility that it might be locked because this was not the right route. We continued across a field and realised at about the same time that we were walking towards a barbed wire fence and that a farm worker in a tractor was watching us - so we had no real option but to retrace our steps and climb back over the gate. It was even more challenging in this direction, but I managed it! We then realised that the correct route went just slightly further round the ramparts, then followed a track towards Middle Hill, past the man in the tractor.