Bratton.  A 180ft long horse, carved in the chalk of a hill, near the site of a Celtic camp.

BRATTON:

(WILTSHIRE - 3 MILES NORTH-EAST OF WESTBURY)

Carved on the side of a chalky hill near the village of Bratton can be seen the figure of a horse nearly 180 ft long. There are other figures of the same type in the area, amongst them several other horses.  Re-cut in its present form in the 18th century, the Bratton horse looks quite different from its predecessor of earlier days. Its forerunner most likely resembled an elongated dachshund carrying a saddle and bearing a crescent moon over the tip of its tail - very similar to a horse cut in the hillside near Uffington Castle in Berkshire.

According to popular tradition, the original Bratton horse was created to commemorate the victory of Alfred the Great over the Danes  in AD 878.  However, it is now thought to date back to Celtic times when horses - animals much loved by the Celts - were worshipped and represented in various ways.

Such large-scale representations as the Bratton horse are now thought to have been acts of veneration and pleas for protection possibly to the Celtic horse goddess, Epona.

The world’s last mysteries - Readers Digest - 1978