Liddington Hill

County - Swindon

Elevation - 277m

Date - 24 March 2022

Distance - 11.3km

Elevation Climbed - 186m

Status - 40th highest Unitary Authority top (of 120)

As the world increasingly opens up post-Covid, so my travel with work begins to increase. Any trip I undertake now has me poring over route maps to see if there's a cheeky CT on the way. And so it was I clocked the Top of Swindon, a unitary authority hived off from Wiltshire in the 90s, handily placed off the M4 as I was planning a work trip to south Wales.

I'd found a route on the (excellent) OS Maps app and darted off the M4 into blazing March sunshine, instantly regretting leaving my hat at home. I parked up and headed along a basin up to the ridge of chalky downs, reaching the top in no time at all and marvelling at the blooming of spring around.

Most of the route was via The Ridgeway, prehistoric Britain's ancient motorway which traced a line along the higher ground west to east (the lower ground would have been full of trees). Strange to think that I was on the Ridgeway when bagging Hertfordshire's CT last year.

Eventually - and after a load of faffing with poor signage to the top - I found my to the trig point, located on the northern wall of a cracking hillfort, albeit one populated only by sheep. From the top there were stunning views over north Wiltshire, and less stunning views over Swindon.

Trig point, hillfort, sheep, view. Standard CT stuff.

Unfortunately at this point I'd suddenly developed a blister. Not to worry as I always carry around a pack of Compeed. I removed the offending shoe and sock, dug out the first aid kit...only to find my teenage daughter had helped herself to the specialist blister plasters for her ill-fitting women's shoes. I smeared the heel with Vaseline, cursed her name, and ploughed on for the next 6k with a hobble.

It really was a stunning day and despite two wrong turns adding 3k unnecessarily to the journey, and exacerbating the blister issue, I wasn't really grumbling. That came later when I got to the M4 to find it closed at Newport, necessitating a 90 min diversion through the city centre. Hey ho.