"Wow" is truly a very good description.
For further information, here are a couple of photos taken during visits over this UK spring time.
Below is a photo taken from the 16th tee, a 160 yd par-3, looking towards the 16th green, a pretty steep green that slopes down from back to front. There is no sprinkler system at Minchinhampton Old so given the free draining nature of the terrain the greens are almost always extremely firm and very fast. The deep gully at the front of the green is the remains of fortified battlements from an old hill fort, probably a stockade style construction, most likely with a high wooden fence running right along the top, built several thousand years ago by yee old folk and stretching several miles in length in a circular manner around the top of the hill. Many holes play over this feature and other similar earthworks either from yee old times or later quarrying to build houses and barns and walls etc. On this hole the prevailing wind is normally from the left and against. In the far distance you can see more earthworks from yee olde days plus the clubhouse and to the left of the clubhouse the flag on the 18th green. The photograph foreshortens things a bit, the two lane road is actually about 20 yds over the back of the green.
Here is the link to the splendid course photo tour posted by Sean a couple of years ago including some notable enhancements by others.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,48765.0.htmlCattle and horses are only present on the common for about 7 months of the year during which time their nightly dropping have to be removed each morning by a man with a spade. Nice job. Some, but not all, of the greens sometimes have thin wire fences around them to keep the animals off. There are sometimes horse riders moving across the common although mostly they stay on well defined bridle ways and dog walkers are often around as well, plus in fine weather picknickers have been known to sit or park their cars very adjacent to the tees and greens! But overall things actually seem to sort themselves out quite well.
To indicate just how how minimalist the course is, below is the Men's competition tee-marker!
If anyone interested in playing Minchinhampton Old plans to be in this area, please post or PM. Maybe a game can be fixed up.
All the best.