Wandlebury Country Park
Woodland and fields on Wandlebury Hill, with the ditch of an Iron Age hill fort that can be walked.
Wandlebury Country Park occupies Wandlebury Hill, a chalk summit 74 metres high. It belongs to the Gog Magog Hills, a low ridge running for several miles to the south-east of Cambridge. The park is mainly beech woodland and fields. It is owned by the charity Cambridge Past, Present & Future, which was formerly the Cambridge Preservation Society.
An Iron Age ring
People lived here as early as the Bronze Age, and about 2,500 years ago an Iron Age hill fort known as Wandlebury Ring stood on the hill. The fort's earthen walls and wooden palisades have vanished, but the ditch dug around it remains, up to five metres deep in places, and it can be walked. There is no evidence that the fort was ever used in defence.
The house and the horse
Wandlebury House, a home of the 2nd Earl of Godolphin, Francis Godolphin, stood inside the ring until it was demolished in the 1950s. The house's stable block survived the demolition. Under its archway is the grave of the Godolphin Barb, a horse that died in 1753.
The hill figure
In 1954 the archaeologist T. C. Lethbridge claimed to have found outlines of ancient figures cut into the hillside, a claim that followed an older report of a hill figure, recorded by Bishop Joseph Hall in 1605. Later checks did not back up his findings, and the Council for British Archaeology put the hollows down to natural processes.
Practical notes
The park lies south-east of the city; the Cherry Hinton area looks towards the same hills. The Banyard hide, a bird hide facing Varley's Field, dates from February 2012. Check the Wandlebury page of Cambridge Past, Present & Future for opening arrangements and parking.