Cley Hill

Cley Hill rises so sharply out of the flat fields west of Warminster that reviewers liken it to a pyramid, a chalk outlier once part of the Longleat estate and given to the National Trust by the 6th Marquess of Bath. Its top carries an Iron Age hillfort, earlier Bronze Age burial mounds and medieval strip lynchets, a 19th-century chalk quarry scars the south side, and the summit looks across West Wiltshire and Somerset to the Mendips; the uninterrupted sky has also made it a locally famous UFO hotspot. Grazing cattle keep the thin-soiled slopes as chalk grassland, where early gentian shows in May, orchids in June and autumn lady's tresses in late summer, and horseshoe vetch draws the rare Adonis blue butterfly, while kestrels and red kites ride the thermals. Reviewers reckon the steady path reaches the top in 15 to 20 minutes and rate the views as ample reward for a short climb. Tips from regulars: the small car park fills fast and gets muddy, the direct face is very steep with a long drop, so take the easier longer path with children, and the narrow edge tracks are slippery after rain.