The Ridgeway, Ancient trackway in southern England

The Ridgeway is a long-distance trail stretching roughly 140 kilometers from Wiltshire to Buckinghamshire across southern England. The route crosses chalk hills and alternates between open ridges and wooded sections, with surfaces ranging from grassy paths to paved tracks.

The route originated over 5000 years ago as a trading path linking Salisbury Plain with East Anglia. Travelers favored the dry hilltops to avoid forests and marshy valleys below.

The name comes from its course along open hilltops that have served as natural landmarks for thousands of years. Today visitors walk through fields where sheep graze and pass villages where traditional farming still shapes the rhythm of daily life.

The surface alternates between chalk and paved sections, with some stretches becoming slippery after rain. Water and supplies are available in villages along the way, not on the open hilltops themselves.

The Ridgeway is one of four long-distance paths that join to form the Greater Ridgeway, running from Lyme Regis to Hunstanton. At the Goring Gap it shares the Thames crossing with the Thames Path, which uses the opposite bank. The Blowing Stone, a large sarsen boulder with holes, sounds a note when blown into.