STEP BACK IN TIME

Take a walk in the footsteps of prehistoric man through the history and landscapes of the Ridgeway, Britain’s oldest road

- NEIL JONES

It has been called ‘Britain’s oldest highway’ and an adventure along it certainly stretches the imagination as well as the legs. The Ridgeway (Anglo-Saxon hyrcgweg) once formed part of a prehistoric track that ran from the Dorset coast to the Norfolk coast, and through the centuries it was used by local tribes and travellers, Viking invaders, traders and herdsmen: the higher, drier (if windblown) chalk ridge being preferable to more wooded terrain below.

Today’s Ridgeway National Trail, running 87 miles northeast from Overton Hill in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire, takes you on a ramble through exhilarating landscapes and fascinating history: through open downland in the west to more intimate Chilterns woodland in the east; from an Iron Age fort and dragon hill to tales of Cromwell. You can walk the route in its entirety in six days, or cherry-pick shorter sections, diving off the M4 and M40 motorways out of London for example.

Located a couple of miles from the official start of the Ridgeway trail, prehistoric Avebury henge (surviving as a huge circular bank and ditch) and the stone circles within it are a must-see: part of the wider ritual landscape that is now Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Why did Neolithic man build this monumental theatre? What was the significance of neighbouring Silbury Hill, Europe’s largest manmade mound?

Curiosity suitably stirred and your mood re-tuned to ancient times, set off from Overton for a breezy swoop up Hackpen Hill and then onwards to the massive, defensive earthen banks and ditches of 6th-century Barbury Castle: your first of numerous encounters with hill-forts created to make the most of the Ridgeway’s strategic advantages. Barbury continues to offer a fantastic lookout over the plain to this day.