Walking the Ridgeway, by Anthony Burton

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Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon (12 miles, 19km)

Wendover is the only town of any size that the walk actually goes through, but when it’s a town as attractive as this it is a pleasure rather than a nuisance. This is an old market town that shows its age in a fine mixture of buildings, many of them timber framed. The route out of town heads back uphill for another woodland walk, which turns out to be something of a switchback, reaching the top, taking a hollow way down and then climbing back up again. But with mature, broad leaf woodland like this no one minds putting in a bit of extra effort. There is a short break out in the open, then a walk through a very different type of wood. This is Tring Park, part of the former Rothschild estate, laid out as a formal drive along an avenue of lime trees. Then the route swoops back down again for the final visit to the valley floor.

The path joins the road for a while to cross two other transport routes, the canal and the railway. When William Jessop came to build the canal, now known as the Grand Union, in the 18th century he found this to be the best place to pierce the hills, so he set his canal in a deep cutting. In the next century, Robert Stephenson came here to build his railway from London to Birmingham and came to the same conclusion, even if the result was that Tring station is nowhere near the town.

Now the walk heads back uphill again to woodland and arrives at another Grim’s Ditch – which is probably associated with the one met earlier. Where there is a break in the trees, the view opens down to the old Pitstone windmill – and the end of the walk comes into sight.

The final part of the Ridgeway is a fitting climax, an exhilarating walk over open grassland. The track swings round above the steep sided cleft of Incombe Hole before climbing to the headland that marks the end of the ridge and the end of this walk. There is time to look out over the wide plain opening out in front and back over the long line of hills and, of course, time to congratulate yourself on finishing one of Britain’s finest long distance trails.

Photographs: Approach to Tring and View from Ivinghoe Beacon. © Bonza TV Ltd