Evening Exercise

As is now my habit on leaving work for the week, I stopped on the way home.  This time in a layby near M3 J11 next to a public walkway along the Itchen Valley and a disused railway line heading into Winchester for a couple of miles or so.

After about a mile I came across the signs for a nature reserve encompassing St Catherine's Hill, with a rather intriguing path of wooden steps winding their way up to the top, where apparently a hill fort and remains of a church could be found - I couldn't resist!

This is the view from the top (the hill stands 70m above the river valley and is reached by 100+ steps) looking across the valley toward the setting sun.  You can just about make out The Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty, founded between 1132 and 1136, creating what is said to be England’s oldest charitable institution.