Ridgeway (Southernmost Remains) forum 1 room
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so where does the Ridgeway go, heading south, after leaving the Vale of Pewsey?

modern maps are pretty unhelpful here

Ric

The 'greater' ridgeway starts in Norfolk and ends on the south coast. Various opinions exist, I've heard Durdle Door before and this website:

http://www.walkingpages.co.uk/trails_paths/LDP_greaterridgeway.htm

names Lyme Regis.

Hope that helps the whithering!

WFx

I wrote some notes on the Picked hill site

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/5851/picked_hill.html

Basically the route was built over by the Kennet and Avon canal.

An alternative walking route was created along ancient paths via the edge of Salisbury Plain and Cranbourne Chase to the Dorset Coast.

This was named, the Wessex Ridgeway and runs from Marlborough to Lyme Regis, a total of 219km/136 miles

The route was devised by local Ramblers during the 1980s in support of the RA's aim to establish a single National Trail along the ancient trackways linking the south coast of England to the Wash. Although National Trail status is yet to be achieved the route is recognised by the local authorities and was opened in 1994.

It links to the Ridgeway National Trail near Avebury and walkers can then continue along the Icknield Way and Peddars Way to Hunstanton.

The Wessex Ridgeway also connects with the Hardy Way, Imber Range Perimeter Path, Jubilee Trail (Dorset), Kennet and Avon Walk, Liberty Trail, Macmillan Way, Monarch's Way, Ridgeway, and the South West Coast Path.

Check out The Ramblers site for more info on all the avobe routes
http://www.ramblers.org.uk/

Chance

The Greater Ridgeway can be followed all the way to Seaton near Lyme Regis. The ancient route has been metalled in places, with a particularly savage stretch, part of the A350, from East Knoyle to Shaftesbury. Nonetheless, the metalled parts tend to be mainly minor roads.

For purists, who prefer to keep to footpaths, the modern Wessex Ridgeway follows the route along its general line.

South of Overton Hill the route strikes south between Walker's Hill and Knap Hill, crosses the Vale of Pewsey to Broadbury Banks, then skirts the scarp edge towards Urchfont. It heads south west through Gore Cross and enters MOD land on Salisbury Plain. The ridgeway then heads straight through the 'ghost village' of Imber, coming out at Battlesbury Camp near Warminster. For two weeks every August the road is actually open to the public, though, just like in American Werewolf in London, you leave the road at your peril. The MOD threaten to prosecute strays!

From there the route continues south west seemingly linking hill forts and burial mounds all the way to the coast. It is blocked by various cross dykes en route. Being on the chalk uplands all the way, it would have been our ancestors' driest and safest bet as a major trade route from coast to coast.

To chart the exact route get the book 'Ancient Trackways of Wessex' by H.W. Timperley & Edith Brill. I'm hoping to walk it from Seaton to Avebury next summer. I walked the path from Avebury to Ivinghoe Beacon years ago but this new section I've just discovered for myself recently.