The National Trail along the chalk downs and the Chilterns, from Overton Hill near Avebury to Ivinghoe Beacon, in its six sections: hill forts, the White Horse at Uffington, the Thames at Goring and the beech woods of the Chilterns.
Best season: All year; May to November is driest underfoot. The trail is open all year. Its chalk and earth surface turns wet and muddy in winter, rutted in places, and National Trails says the ground is better from May to November. Bluebells flower in early May, the chalk grassland from June to August, and the Chiltern beech woods colour in late October and November. Before you go
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Checking the seasons, closures and current conditions for today…
Six sections, the National Trail's own, about 15 miles (24 km) a day, the pace National Trails suggests. Two section ends are not villages: Sparsholt Firs, a car park on the downs, and Ivinghoe Beacon, a hilltop; the beds are a short walk off. Choose a plan, or pick your own start, finish and nights below.
Changing where you stay suggests a new number of days: the fewest that keep each day under 8 h of walking and in daylight, where a place to stay allows.
Days end where the route has a stay, a camp or a village.
Stage 1: From Overton Hill on the A4 by Barbury Castle and down Smeathe's Ridge to Ogbourne St George: 14.8 km, National Trails says.
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Open Monday to Thursday only: no rooms on Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights. nationaltrail.co.uk, read 13 October 2026
A village on the path with B&Bs and pubs.
Or a room in the village. OpenStreetMap lists at least 3 places to stay within about 1300 m; TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage 2: The most remote section: across the M4 and by Liddington Castle, Fox Hill and Wayland's Smithy to the car park at Sparsholt Firs: 25.6 km. Nothing to buy on the ridge; the villages lie below it.
Overnight
Hostel or bunkhouse
Pick a date to check the season.
Overnight
Camping spot
Pick a date to check the season.
A car park on the downs where the B4001 crosses, with no village. Down Barn Farm on Sparsholt Down is close by; Court Hill's hostel and small campsite is on the path about 3 km on, and Letcombe Regis and Wantage are 2 to 3.5 km below the ridge.
Or a room in the village. OpenStreetMap lists at least 2 places to stay within about 1300 m of Letcombe Regis; TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage 3: By Court Hill and the A34 underpass beyond Bury Down over the open downs, then down to the Thames at Streatley: 27.9 km. The ridge is exposed in wet, cold or hot weather.
Overnight
Hostel or bunkhouse
Pick a date to check the season.
Not confirmed open: YHA's own page could not be read on 13 October 2026 and the trail listing dates from July 2025. yha.org.uk, read 13 October 2026
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Streatley and Goring face each other across the Thames: YHA Streatley, inns and B&Bs, and Goring & Streatley station.
Or a room in the village. OpenStreetMap lists at least 3 places to stay within about 1300 m; TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage 4: Over the Thames bridge to Goring, along Grim's Ditch to Nuffield, and by Swyncombe onto the Upper Icknield Way to Watlington: 24.6 km.
Overnight
Camping spot
Pick a date to check the season.
The section ends where the path passes about 1 km south-east of the small town, on the Icknield Way. White Mark Farm's campsite lies between; it is closed for winter until 25 March 2027.
Or a room in the village. OpenStreetMap lists at least 1 place to stay within about 1300 m; TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage 5: The most undulating section: under the M40, along the Chiltern scarp by Lodge Hill to Princes Risborough, then by Bacombe Hill to Wendover: 27.2 km. Between Bacombe Hill and Wendover station the High Speed 2 works divert the trail over a signed road route and a temporary bridge.
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Overnight
Camping spot
Pick a date to check the season.
A small town on the path, with inns, B&Bs and a station (Chiltern Railways).
Or a room in the village. OpenStreetMap lists at least 1 place to stay within about 1300 m; TrailSplits has not checked which are open.
Stage 6: By Wigginton, over the A41 footbridge and the Grand Union Canal by Tring station, then up Pitstone Hill to Ivinghoe Beacon: 18.8 km.
Longest day: day 5, 7 h 40.
Days end at a stage end with a refuge or a village, or in a village the route passes through. Walking times are measured on each stage's mapped line by our route analysis (terrain heights and our hiking-time model, moving time only): no time is published for these stages.Outside Switzerland our walking times often run short of the times route operators publish; treat them as optimistic. Running times use 7.5 km/h plus one hour per 700 m of climb: a steady reference, not a prediction. Daylight is sunrise to sunset where the day starts; the time left is for breaks, meals and delays.Refuge dates come from the operator's own pages; when they are not published, we say so. For villages we count the places to stay OpenStreetMap lists; we have not checked which are open. A plan is not a booking: reserve every night before you commit to these day lengths.
Where each stage ends, the 2026 and 2027 seasons the operator publishes, and how to book. Read from the operators' pages on 13 October 2026; each stage page shows the sources and the grade profile.
| Stage | Night at | 2026 | 2027 | Booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Overton Hill to Ogbourne St George | The Sanctuary B&B | 2026 dates not published | not published | Booking method not published |
| 2. Ogbourne St George to Sparsholt Firs | Court Hill Centre | 2026 dates not published | not published | Booking request |
| 3. Sparsholt Firs to Streatley | YHA Streatley notice | 2026 dates not published | not published | Booking method not published |
| 4. Streatley to Watlington | White Mark Farm | 27 March 2026 to 31 October 2026 | from 25 March 2027 | Booking method not published |
| 5. Watlington to Wendover | Bel & The Dragon - Red Lion Wendover | 2026 dates not published | not published | Booking method not published |
| 6. Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon | Ivinghoe | Not checked | Not checked |
Loading the forecast for low point (41 m) and high point (276 m)…
Typical weather on this trail: at the lowest point (41 m) and the highest point (276 m). Select a month to see why it is rated as it is.
| Month | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weather | Mixed | Mixed | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Mixed |
| Stages rated good on typical weather | 0/6 | 0/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 6/6 | 0/6 |
| High point, day / night | 7°/1° | 7°/1° | 10°/2° | 12°/4° | 16°/7° | 19°/9° | 21°/11° | 21°/11° | 18°/9° | 13°/7° | 10°/4° | 7°/2° |
| Low point, day / night | 8°/2° | 9°/2° | 11°/4° | 14°/5° | 18°/8° | 21°/11° | 23°/13° | 22°/13° | 19°/10° | 15°/8° | 11°/5° | 9°/3° |
| Rain, mm | 74 | 56 | 56 | 51 | 55 | 58 | 61 | 70 | 64 | 83 | 88 | 84 |
| Snow at high point | Frost | Frost | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | Frost |
| Daylight | 8 h 18 | 9 h 57 | 11 h 46 | 13 h 48 | 15 h 34 | 16 h 36 | 16 h 13 | 14 h 41 | 12 h 45 | 10 h 47 | 8 h 55 | 7 h 52 |
Source: TerraClimate 1991–2020 monthly averages. Averages for the area at each point’s elevation (4 km grid, corrected for height). Not a forecast or a report of current trail conditions. Snow at the high point is estimated with a simple snowpack model from these temperatures and precipitation, not observed; steep islands and high summits can hold more snow than it shows. Daylight is for the 15th of each month. Hut, transport and park seasons are separate: check them for your dates.
Before you go
Arrange your stays, food and travel first, then check conditions again near departure.
Places to stay are few in some areas, National Trails says, so book ahead; wild camping needs the landowner's permission. Court Hill asks walkers to book, as it is often full with groups. Several stays open only part of the year: White Mark Farm's campsite at Watlington is closed for winter until 25 March 2027, and Town Farm at Ivinghoe takes no tents until spring 2027.
National Trails lists the Ridgeway's diversions and cautions on its map. At Wendover, the High Speed 2 works divert the trail between the station and Bacombe Hill over a signed road route and a temporary bridge. The A34 underpass beyond Bury Down is narrowed to 1.6 m. Near Avebury the surface is badly rutted for about 3 miles, and there are cautions for a hole in the path under the Brunel railway bridge over the Thames, for rabbit scrapes on Lodge Hill, and for the steep path between Brush Hill and Princes Risborough, which can be slippery.
National Trails: the Ridgeway's trail information and mapAbout 33 km (20 miles) of the trail is byway. On much of it, seasonal orders keep motor vehicles off in winter: from 1 October to 30 April on the downs round Barbury and Ogbourne and between East Ilsley and Goring, from 1 November to 30 April in the Chilterns. Other byway stretches have no ban, and where vehicles may drive the ruts fill with water: wear boots that cope with chalk mud.
National Trails: vehicles on the Ridgeway (leaflet)West of the Thames the trail stays on the ridge, away from the villages: carry water for the day, and plan food for section 2, where there is nothing on the path. In the Chilterns the trail passes villages, pubs and stations.
National Trails: route descriptionClosures and notices last checked 13 October 2026: National Trails: Ridgeway diversions (map, part 1) · National Trails: Ridgeway diversions (map, part 2). Check them again before you set out.
Getting there
Choose a stage or journey above to narrow the travel searches.
Google Maps journey searches, not confirmed services. A mountain endpoint may need a booked transfer or an additional walk.
Trains run to Swindon (Great Western Railway), and the 49 bus from Swindon to Avebury every day, National Trails says. From Avebury, walk about 2 km by the Sanctuary to Overton Hill, or join the trail on Green Street.
National Trails: public transport to either end (leaflet)East of the Thames every section ends near a station: Goring & Streatley (Great Western Railway), Princes Risborough and Wendover (Chiltern Railways), and Tring, on the trail about 6 km before the Beacon. Lewknor, near Watlington, has coaches to London and Oxford.
National Trails: getting to the RidgewayFrom the foot of the Beacon, the Red Eagle 61 runs to Tring, Aylesbury and Dunstable, Monday to Saturday; there is no Sunday service. Otherwise walk back to Tring station, about 6 km along the trail.
Red Eagle: bus servicesTake your trip with you
Prepare each section while you still have a connection: on the open downs west of the Thames the signal can be weak.
Keep your route and maps on your phone for places without a signal. For multi-day trips, prepare them in the installed TrailSplits app.
Saving a bookmark is not a map download. Storage can be cleared by your device; keep a backup map for remote trips.
National Trails suggests 6 days of about 15 miles (24 km); it gives 87 miles (139 km), in 6 sections on our map. The guide's day planner offers a 6-day plan on the overnight stops, and you can choose your own nights.
All year; May to November is driest underfoot. The trail is open all year.
Trains run to Swindon (Great Western Railway), and the 49 bus from Swindon to Avebury every day, National Trails says. The "Connect your journey" section has the travel details, with 2 more travel notes.
Places to stay are few in some areas, National Trails says, so book ahead; wild camping needs the landowner's permission.
Yes: the whole route and every section, free, for a GPS watch or a phone. The guide also saves your plan for offline use in the app.
Closures we know of are shown on the days and sections they affect, in the day planner and on the stage pages. We watch 2 official notice pages (National Trails: Ridgeway diversions (map, part 1); National Trails: Ridgeway diversions (map, part 2)); the date we last read them is shown with the notices on this page. Check them again before you set off.
Route & sources
National Trails gives 87 miles (139 km) from Overton Hill to Ivinghoe Beacon in six sections, south-west to north-east, the direction its guide and the prevailing wind favour. National Trails publishes no section times, only distances, so the times here are measured on our line. The line here is the route on OpenStreetMap (relation 8879, "The Ridgeway", from the planet of 11 October 2026): 138.9 km, cut at the six section ends. West of the Thames the trail follows the old ridge road across the open downs; east of it, footpaths and lanes through the Chilterns. Our climb is measured on terrain heights, so short steep banks are smoothed out.
Official guidance and mapped-source comparison checked 13 October 2026. Map data is a route reference, not confirmation of today's path, weather or accommodation availability.
National Trails: the RidgewayMap data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Source relation