Illustration — photo coming soon
You're walking one of Britain's oldest roads, a route that's been in use for thousands of years as it runs along a chalk escarpment with sweeping views across the open downland of Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Whether you want a serious long-distance challenge or just a couple of hours out in the fresh air, there's something here for most abilities.
The history embedded in this landscape is genuinely remarkable. Prehistoric traders, drovers moving livestock, soldiers, and pilgrims all used these ridges, and you can still see the evidence. Bronze Age burial mounds and Iron Age hill forts punctuate the terrain, and a short walk from some sections brings you to the Uffington White Horse, a monumental chalk figure carved into the hillside that's served as a landmark for centuries.
Letcombe Bassett is a convenient village to start from, and nearby Wantage, a proper market town with shops, restaurants, and accommodation, provides everything you'll need practically. The landscape here has a different character entirely from the Cotswold stone villages you'll find further west. Instead, you get vast skies and rolling chalk hills, a sense of openness that really emphasises how much foot traffic this path has carried throughout history. Walking here, you're genuinely connected to centuries of people who chose these same routes.
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