Our verdict
Worth timing for a warm, sunny day in June or July if butterflies are the draw — otherwise it's a fairly ordinary stretch of down. Forms part of a longer circular walk from Yatton Keynell via Ford and Danks Down if you want to make more of a day of it.
A 14-hectare SSSI of unimproved limestone grassland above the hamlet of Long Dean, near Yatton Keynell — one of the better wildflower and butterfly sites in this part of Wiltshire, with bastard-toadflax, Dyer's greenweed and musk orchid among the specialities, and around 30 butterfly species recorded most years.
Open access land — you can roam freely on foot.