Salisbury Plain has a special place in 4×4 culture. On the surface, it’s a wilderness – yet there are few parts of the British countryside more overtly influenced by human activity. It’s distinctive yet poorly defined. It’s damaged but flourishing. And it’s one of the most restricted parts of the country – yet there’s a greater concentration of green lanes here than anywhere else.
Most of all, there’s nothing ‘plain’ about it at all. It covers around 200,000 acres in the southern half of Wiltshire and the western fringes of Hampshire, and a huge amount of it is empty and uninhabited. That’s because about half of it is owned by the Army – the Salisbury Plain Training Area (SPTA). Much of the military land is leased for farming and grazing. So the ‘wilderness’ part of the Plain that’s used day-to-day for troop training only covers less than half of its total area. Nonetheless, by British standards it’s a strikingly vast and empty place. And with so many rights of way open to motor vehicles, it’s paradise in a 4×4.
There’s something wonderfully bleak about driving there in bad weather, too. In some parts of the Plain, the rights of way are subject to voluntary restraint during the winter, but the majority are usable all year round – and it’s as majestic beneath scudding grey clouds or, even better, pouring rain as it as glorious in the balmy, sunlit days of summer.
Read the full article in the October issue of Overlander 4×4 –
