The Ridgeway

The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ridge of the Berkshire Downs to the River Thames at the Goring Gap, part of the Icknield Way which ran, not always on the ridge, from Salisbury Plain to East Anglia. The route was adapted and extended as a National Trail, created in 1972. The Ridgeway National Trail follows the ancient Ridgeway from Overton Hill, near Avebury, to Streatley, then follows footpaths and parts of the ancient Icknield Way through the Chiltern Hills to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. The National Trail is 87 miles (140 km) long.History
The Ridgeway
For at least 5,000 years travellers have used the Ridgeway. The Ridgeway provided a reliable trading route to the Dorset coast and to the Wash in Norfolk. The high dry ground made travel easy and provided a measure of protection by giving traders a commanding view, warning against potential attacks. The Bronze Age saw the development of Uffington White Horse and the stone circle at Avebury. During the Iron Age, inhabitants took advantage of the high ground by building hillforts along the Ridgeway to help defend the trading route. Following the collapse of Roman authority in Western Europe, invading Saxon and Viking armies used it. In medieval times and later, the Ridgeway found use by drovers, moving their livestock from the West Country and Wales to markets in the Home Counties and London. Before the Enclosure Acts of 1750, the Ridgeway existed as an informal series of tracks across the chalk downs, chosen by travellers based on path conditions. Once enclosures started, the current path developed through the building of earth banks and the planting of hedges.
The Ridgeway is Europe’s oldest continually used highway. Dating back thousands of years, this was a prehistorically important route, with many ancient landmarks along it’s length, and ending at the magnificent stone circles of Avebury (which predates Stonehenge by some 700 years!)
Today, the Ridgeway remains a popular recreational route, and a fantastic long distance off road trail! Faster paced and less extreme than the South Downs Way, the Ridgeway is a fantastic ride and gives you plenty to get your teeth into. The route keeps you high up and offers continuous sweeping views, with just enough dips and diversions along the ridge to keep your climbing / descending muscles ticking over! The surface only occasionally gets semi-technical, leaving you with 100km of very rideable trail to enjoy! It’s a ride that invites you to open up your engines, and test how long you can keep them running!