The Ridgeway: The 5k-year-old pathway that's Britain's oldest road

It's a nice place to walk, either way.

I walked part of the way about (oh dear) twenty years ago and arrived in Stonehenge for the summer solstice bash. That was fun.

> For the Ridgeway in particular, the claim from the podcast is that there is in fact no archaeological evidence that this was a prehistoric routeway, nor that it was a single coherent long-distance entity. The claim is that it appears this way because highland areas and ridges are better preserved, because they're generally not cultivated and are less subject to erosion, so the whole thing is just a selection effect.

I had a search around and came across four or five citations claiming that the ridgeway wasn't actually the long-distance path it's popularly known as... all of which were dead links. So I'm inclined to suspect that it really is exactly what it's thought to be; at a minimum I'd want to see a publicly available text for why it's not, rather than a podcast or paid book.

There's no question that the tops of chalk ridges were used for route making in centuries past. They tend to be drier, less boggy and less woody (and safer from attack) than low-lying routes. So it may have not been one long trail, but as a succession of trails, it is still highly likely.

I also have fond memories of the Ridgeway, and especially the White Horse. As a kid we lived in a village 9 miles or so away (perhaps the same place as your dad?).

I used to fly model rockets from the fields by the White Horse. And I'll never forget being made to do cross country running on the Ridgeway from school.

There's so much history and myth tied up with that area. Especially true of the White Horse, Dragon hill (where legend says St. George killed the dragon), and Wayland's Smithy near by.

I also found it in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/8879 Makes it much easier to zoom in.

I was just coming here to question how the article doesn’t include a map.

I've done this, but in the other direction, by public transport.

Neither end of the Ridgeway is particularly convenient for public transport. Avebury is quite close the western end, and has buses to Swindon (and then trains to London). It's also well worth visiting: a highlight of the trip. At the eastern end you're not so far from Tring train station.

Accommodation is a bit sparse until you get close to London, so it will tend to dictate how far you walk each day. However there are companies that will arrange it, take your luggage, and pick you up / drop you back on the trail. Some B&Bs can also help with this.

(We just carried our stuff and walked to the places we stayed)

"Yes" - with some preparation and a tolerance for walking.

There should be a walking guide online, others have posted links to Ordinance Maps of the ridge.

Your dog may be an issue skirting | crossing farmland on right of ways, loose dogs can and do get shot for sheep worrying or even suspicion of.

Great Britain as an island is only 300 miles (500 km) at it's widest and from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern coast of England, about 600 miles (1,000 km).

ie. most walks are shorter than the Bibbulmun Track.

Yes. Take a look at the National Trails website: https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/the-ridgeway/tr...

There are also plenty of Sunday newspaper articles about walking it/a section of it in the archives.

I was going to flippantly reply that of course, it's just the name of a type of road. But then I thought to check Wikipedia [1] about it first. Quite interesting:

> In western Europe, [...] ridgeways are a typical feature of long-distance ancient routes through rugged, high-rainfall parts of Germany and across the island of Great Britain. These ancient trackways generally ran along the hilltops, only descending when necessary to cross valleys.

> As such, they are an opposite to modern-style roads, which tend to run along the valleys and only ascend when necessary to cross the hilltops.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridgeway_(road)

There’s Ridgeway Park in Chingford, I guess it’s at a top of a steep rise from the river Lea.

I rode King Alfred’s Way, which includes the Ridgeway, a few years ago.

It is a great route but I wish I’d had larger tyres. I used 33C cyclocross tyres and it does get a bit slippery up those chalk hills when it rains.

I loved it and would recommend it to anyone.

The King Alfred's Way bikepacking route [1] includes part of the Ridgway. I planned to do this last summer, but didn't get chance, and I'm not really fit at the moment enough having barely cycled since last summer, but maybe I'll get around to doing this next year. It does look like a great route though.

[1] https://www.cyclinguk.org/king-alfreds-way

I walked it the year before last and it is indeed! It's interestingly varied, remarkably quiet and a nice length and amount of effort.