The Ridgeway
is a prehistoric trackway, perhaps Britain’s oldest road, which ran from the
River Thames to East Anglia. A great deal of it runs along the chalk ridge of
the Berkshire Downs, close to the ancient sites of Uffington, Avebury and
Wayland’s Smithy, before crossing Salisbury Plain. It’s linked to Grimes Graves
in Norfolk, a Neolithic flint mine of national importance.
Dating is
difficult and relies on nearby prehistoric sites which seem to have been built
in association with it. It’s believed to date from the Neolithic period,
c3000BC.
It was used as
a secure and passable all-year-round trade route, especially so in the Iron Age
period, and forts were built nearby to control the route. Later armies took
advantage of it, as did drovers taking livestock to distant markets.
The sarsen
fields of the Marlborough Downs
Today it forms
part of a long-distance footpath which runs for 87 miles across the downs,
where people can walk in the footsteps of five thousand years of history. It’s
a beautiful route. It offers views of Avebury and other ancient sites, the
sarsen fields where stone was gathered for these ancient monuments and
woodlands with unusual trees and plants. With little in the way of modern
buildings or roads, it’s possible to imagine it’s a literal walk in history.
Bronze Age
burial mounds alongside the Ridgeway
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