32nd: St Catherine’s Hill – Hampshire and the Isle of Wight

We’ve visited St Catherine’s Hill many, many times over the years, but it’s usually been the hill itself, where there once stood an iron age fort and a Norman chapel, so it’s certainly steeped in our history! In fact, one of the views of this place that really sticks with me is the view of it from the motorway, it seems counter intuitive, but from here it looms up from the landscape like a mythical island of king Arthur’s Albion, particularly first thing in the morning.

However, we accessed the reserve from the opposite side of the M3 and discovered a part of the reserve we were completely unaware of. We took it as a sign that on the entrance gate we were greeted by one of the local residents.

Once inside it was full of rolling hills, wildflowers, insects, butterflies and birds and was every bit as beautiful as Deacon Hill we’d just walked from.

We stopped and had breakfast and were all on our own. Something that just wouldn’t be possible in the more popular part of the reserve. Despite all the small beauty, I think I’ll have to do a piece of the hill that tries to capture that feeling of mythical Albion and save the flowers and butterflies for Deacon Hill.