One of my favourite drone and photography locations just a short drive along the A4 from the Avebury UNESCO site is the Oldbury Hillfort just outside of Calne.
Overlooking the Vale of Pewsey near Cherhill in Wiltshire, it is an Iron Age fort dating back to around the 6th century BC. Its substantial ramparts and ditches once enclosed a defended settlement, taking advantage of the dramatic chalk escarpment for natural protection. Below the hillfort lies the Cherhill White Horse, carved in 1780 by local doctor Christopher Alsop.
Crowning the ridge above both is the Lansdowne Monument, a 38-metre obelisk built in 1845 to commemorate Sir William Petty, Marquess of Lansdowne, a prominent statesman and landowner.
I took the shot with my Mavic 3 to try and capture these layers of history in a single sweeping view: the obelisk rising starkly from the ridge, ancient earthworks rippling across the chalk hills, and the White Horse etched into the slope, all set within a vast patchwork of farmland beneath a brooding Wiltshire sky (the sky was a bit more brooding than I was expecting! Lovely and sunny when I left home and arriving 30 minutes later, it had turned overcast, spitting with rain, and with wind gusting to 25 mph on the top..)
