Dunstable Downs are part of the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshir ...

, in southern

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

in England, located near (and named after) the town of

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the ...

. They are a

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Cha ...

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

forming the north-eastern reaches of the Chilterns. At , Dunstable Downs are the highest point in the county of Bedfordshire. Because of its elevation, Dunstable Downs hosted a station in the shutter telegraph chain which connected the Admiralty in London to its naval ships in the port of

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of ...

during the years 1808 to 1814.

Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, formerly known as Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, is a zoo and safari park located at Whipsnade, near Dunstable in Bedfordshire, England. It is one of two zoos (the other being ZSL London Zoo in Regent's Park, London) that are ow ...

has cut an enormous lion shape into the chalk on the side of one of the hills. The lion can be seen from the B489 (

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamsh ...

road). The downs are used by gliders,

kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. ...

fliers, hang gliders and paragliders in the area because of their height. The

London Gliding Club The London Gliding Club (LGC) is a members' club whose airfield is located at the foot of the Dunstable Downs. Many privately owned gliders are based there. It has the facilities to train pilots in powerless flight, and in the skills necessary ...

is based at the foot of the downs. Much of the downs is managed by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

as part of the Dunstable Downs & Whipsnade Estate property.

Ascents

Central Bedfordshire Council Central Bedfordshire Council is the local authority for the Central Bedfordshire unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was created from the merger of Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire District Councils ...

and the National Trust commissioned Archetype architects to build a

visitor centre A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visit ...

known as the Chilterns Gateway Centre, on the very top of Dunstable Downs. The summit is right next to the B4541 road that crosses the hill, and so an ascent of the hill requires nothing more than getting out of a car at the highest point and walking across to the

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they ...

. For those who wish to climb the hill from the base, it is possible to do a circular walk from the village of

Whipsnade Whipsnade is a small village and civil parish in the county of Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, about 4.2 km south-south-west of Dunstable on the top of the Dunstable Downs which drop away stee ...

by following the Icknield Way Path and

Chiltern Way The Chiltern Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in the Chiltern Hills of southern England. It was created by the Chiltern Society as a Millennium project. Route The Chiltern Way runs for around .Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...

maps. This circuit can be extended to take in the northern top of Five Knolls. The hill can also be ascended from

to the north. The Icknield Way Trail,Icknield Way Trail
a horse rider and off-road cycle route, has been established following a similar route to the Icknield Way Path which passes over the Dunstable Downs.

Archaeological Sites

At the northern tip of the Dunstable Downs, lies th
Five Knolls Barrow Cemetery
First described by antiquarian

William Stukeley William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English antiquarian, physician and Anglican clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of archaeology, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistor ...

in the 18th century, the site contained burials from the late Neolithic to

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...

eras prior to excavation. They include the "Five Knolls Woman", aged between 35 and 40 years, buried on her side with a flint knife. A mother and child, buried with a number of echinoid fossils were also found, dating approximately from the early Bronze Age. The site is also known for the deviant burial of executed Saxon criminals.

Natural history

The downs are home to a wide variety of wildlife including many rare wild flowers, such as the bee orchid, and butterfly species, like the marbled white and the

chalkhill blue The chalkhill blue (''Lysandra coridon'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is a small butterfly that can be found throughout the Palearctic realm, where it occurs primarily in grasslands rich in chalk. Males have a pale blue colour, wh ...

. Areas of the west-facing slope were notified in 1987 under the

Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom implemented to comply with European Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds. In short, the act gives protection to native species (especia ...

as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) called Dunstable and Whipsnade Downs.

Blow's Down Blow's Down is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dunstable in Bedfordshire. It was notified in 1989 under Section 28 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and the local planning authority is Central Bedfordshire Council. Th ...

is a continuation of the Dunstable Downs escarpment on the eastern side of Dunstable. It is also an SSSI and most of it is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (as Blow's Downs).

Notes and references

External links

{{Commons category, Dunstable Downs
Dunstable Downs, Countryside Centre & Whipsnade Estate at the National Trust

London Gliding Club
Dunstable Hills of Bedfordshire National Trust properties in Bedfordshire Tourist attractions in Bedfordshire Chiltern Hills Highest points of English counties

Ascents

Archaeological Sites

Natural history

See also

Notes and references

External links