The Bird Henge Online Trail for ramblers was launched by 30 local walkers starting and finishing at the Prince Leopold Inn, Upton Lovell, on November 15.

On the trail there are many historic relics: Saxon carvings, a mediaeval knight’s tomb and a bridge made as part of D-Day preparations in 1944. The trail follows a figure of eight route with Knook as the “waist” and is about three miles long.

It passes the modern sculptures of Bird Henge – a henge of giant birds made by the Scraptors Sculpture Group which specialises in making sculpture with recycled materials.

Anthony Wilson, a member of the Scraptors Group, led the ramblers.

He said: “Compiling the online trail has been a voyage of discovery in a patch that I have known all my life. I have toddled over a bridge since I was toddler without realizing its connection with D-Day.

"I have also found my inner Indiana Jones; I pulled off the ivy obscuring some masonry beside the path near Heytesbury Mill. Fully revealed are the remains of a wide, deep sluice which once fed a channel for the “drownings” of the water meadows. A bit of wood for the working has survived. The channel was long ago filled in.”

Bird Henge and its accompanying trail were funded by a grant from the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. See www.birdhengetrailwiltshire.blogspot.com