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Photo: Jim Champion · CC BY-SA 2.0
Near Woodyates · CRoW

Bokerley Down

Our verdict

Good walking with real archaeological weight — the dyke itself is an impressive earthwork once you know what you're looking at. Best combined with Martin Down next door rather than visited alone; livestock graze nearby so dogs on a lead.

Downland along the line of Bokerley Dyke, a 5.75km linear earthwork thought to originate in the Bronze or Iron Age and later remodelled as a defensive boundary in the Roman and post-Roman period, possibly against Saxon incursions from the Avon valley. It runs along the Dorset/Hampshire border and links directly into the Martin Down reserve.

Where it is