Tring circular walk via Ivinghoe Beacon

Tring circular via Ivinghoe Beacon

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Distance: 9.1 miles.
Time without long breaks: 5 hours.

Terrain: A few climbs – Steps Hill, Ivinghoe Beacon, and Hanging Combe. Some of the paths in the woods can be a bit rocky.
How to get there and back: Train to Tring and back (regular trains from Euston, journey time around 30-40 minutes).
Pubs: There is only one pub on the route, and it's near the end of the walk – the Greyhound at Aldbury (the other village pub, the Valiant Trooper, has now sadly closed). Tring itself is a fair walk from the station but it does contain the wonderful Kings Arms (as well as other pubs), which could be an excellent place to end the day.
More information: Check the weather before setting off. The first time we did this walk it was very foggy and misty, which meant we missed out on the great views from Ivinghoe Beacon.

This Chilterns walk takes you to the heights of Ivinghoe Beacon, an old iron age settlement with superb views of the surrounding countryside. It includes sections of two ancient routes – the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way (see panel below). You also traverse part of the Ashridge Estate, which is run by the National Trust. As well as chalk downlands, there are beautiful woods to explore and if you are feeling fit enough you can climb to the top of the Bridgewater Monument. The village of Aldbury, towards the end of the walk, has the Greyhound pub, which is about a mile from Tring station.

Take the eastern exit from Tring station via the bridge (head towards platform 5 and the long-stay car park). Cut across the car park and the side road. In the hedge on your right you will see a small gate. Go through this into the field. The path runs parallel to the main road. After about 200m, exit the field on your left and cross over the road. Go through the metal gate and head up the farm driveway, following the sign for the Ridgeway. When the concrete track veers off to the left towards the farm, carry on straight ahead. You will soon come to a crossroads of paths and a signpost. Turn left up a tree-lined track to continue along the Ridgeway.

Follow the chalk track up and along the ridge of Pitstone Hill, with the escarpment dropping away steeply your left, where you will see a quarry below. Passing a solitary small tree on your right, you can see Ivinghoe Beacon in the distance ahead. There are also some great views behind you. The path dips down and then branches off to the right. Follow the track straight ahead which goes up and over the brow of a small hill – known locally as 'Paul's Knob' (and marked on some maps as such). On the other side of the hill, walk down to reach the metal gate ahead of you, which leads to a small car park. Cross over the lane and and go through a wooden gate to proceed along the Ridgeway.

The path descends via some steps to a road. Cross over and you will find a signpost and a number of tracks which head off in different directions. Take the broad chalk track on your left, following the sign for the Icknield Way. Passing a number of bronze age burial mounds, this leads directly up the hill to the trig point at the summit of Ivinghoe Beacon, which has sweeping views across the Vale of Aylesbury below. This ancient landmark is the site of an Iron Age hill fort and there are signs of prehistoric farming. It's a great place to stop and rest before the remainder of the walk.

There are three grassy tracks here to choose from. Take the one furthest to your left, which runs parallel to the trees. This leads to a gate beside a wooden farm gate. Following the sign for the Icknield Way, take the track through the woods. After about 300m, you enter a plantation of pine trees. It is pretty dark in here and it has a certain 'Hansel and Gretel' feel, particularly as there is no clear indication of where the path goes through the trees. It is difficult to get really lost, though – our advice is to just keep straight ahead. The path bends around to the left to join a track that runs along the edge of a field bordered by a wooden fence.

Turn left here, following the footpath post. After about 3/4 mile along this track, which is popular with dog walkers, you will spot a wood cabin on your right which looks a bit like an old witch's hut. Just beyond this, also on the right, is the Moneybury Hill tumulus, a bronze age burial mound dating from about 4,000 years ago. It is difficult to gain access since it has recently been fenced off and is now very overgrown. This is apparently to prevent the barrow from erosion, but it's a shame you can no longer really see it. Carry on down the track, crossing over a wooden bridge to reach the 108-foot high Bridgewater Monument.

Continue over the track that crosses left-to-right and carry on down the path opposite. You will then meet another track which also crosses your path. This time, turn left. When you reach a four-fingered green bridleway sign, turn right. This path runs alongside some fields on the right-hand side before becoming a lane and going past some houses on the edge of Aldbury. Turn left to reach the centre of the village and the Greyhound pub. On leaving the Greyhound, walk down past the village pond and turn right along Station Road. Just beyond the church, on your right, go through the gates to Church Farm following the green footpath sign.

After about 500m you will come to a junction of paths. Turn right past an information board and through a wooden gate into Aldbury Nowers nature reserve, home to a variety of rare wildflowers and butterflies and Shetland sheep (it is well signposted throughout, telling you what to look out for). Shortly after entering the wood you will come to a sign. Turn left and ascend the steps, continuing along the Ridgeway. The track follows the course of some old earthworks called Grim's Ditch. Carry on through the woods with views to your left until you reach a wooden gate. Go through this and then go straight ahead, following the sign.

The track runs along the edge of a large flat field and goes past a signpost. It then starts to ascend, skirting around Incombe Hole on your left, an impressive feature formed during the ice ages. Ignoring the footpath sign to your right, a short distance on you will come to a gate straight ahead. Rather than go through this, take the footpath to the left of the gate which leads to the top of the combe. Continue to skirt around the combe along the path until you come to a solitary oak tree. Here, the path bears right and goes through gorse bushes before following the ridge of the escarpment. Rejoin the Ridgeway by going through a wooden gate.

Head east when leaving the beacon, going through a gate to follow the track along the top of a prominent ridge which leads to Gallows Hill. Proceed through a metal swing gate. In the distance you should be able to see the Whipesnade White Lion, a modern hill figure. You soon come to a wooden gate on your right with a smaller gate alongside it (straight ahead here is another bronze age round barrow). Go through the gate and proceed downhill with a fence on your left. When you reach the valley bottom, turn right along a row of trees, following the chalk track in the same direction when it continues through the next field. After about half a mile, turn left through a wooden gate.

You will soon see some steep wooden steps ahead of you. Be warned – these can be a bit of an arduous climb and you might need a rest halfway up. When you reach the top, proceed through the gate to Ward's Hurst farm. Go past the pond in the farmyard, turning right to head between the barns. Then turn left towards a stone wall with a telephone box to reach the farm driveway. Walk down the concrete road away from the farm. Go through the metal gate at the end of the driveway, cross over the road and enter the wood on the other side. Turn right down the track and, a few meters along, take the track on your left. After about 150m you will reach a junction of tracks.

The monument was built in 1832 by the Duke of Bridgewater, who was famous for building canals during the industrial revolution. It is open on weekends from April to October, when you can climb the 172 stairs to the top to enjoy views across the Chilterns. From the monument, cross over the green (the Ashridge Estate visitor centre, which has a cafe and toilets, is on your left). Turn right, go past the house and head down the bridleway following the sign. You will then come to a junction of tracks. Take the one of the left, which runs alongside a large field on your left-hand side. When you reach the bottom corner of the field, you will arrive at a junction. Take the path on your right (don't go straight ahead). This then descends down through the woods.

Go straight ahead and, before you reach the big metal barn, go through a small gate on your left and then a pair of metal swing gates. Keep going until you meet a junction of paths by a wooden sign. Turn left here. You will shortly come to the crossroads of paths where you were earlier in the day. Carry on past Westland Farm, retracing your steps. Cross over the road and into the field. Follow the path along the edge of the field, going through the gate at the end back on to the road. Tring Station is a short distance ahead of you.

Where would we be without Ordnance Survey maps? It’s a joy to pore over a new OS, looking for the oddly named features and getting a feel for a landscape before stepping foot in it. Their quirks are intriguing. The Isle of Wight edition famously has the names of the OS cartographers covertly etched into the cliffs. The most valuable part of school geography lessons was surely learning the OS map symbols. Of course, when devising these walks, one of the most important symbols was the good old pint pot but it has not always served us well. For one walk, this led us to not one but two freshly closed-down pubs – we missed one of them by just one day. In contrast, by far the most reliable symbol is the trusty acorn – the easiest parts of a walk will be those governed by it… you can rarely get lost if you follow the waymarkers. The acorn is the symbol for the 16 national trails in England and Wales and the ones that most often feature on A Trip Out are the South Downs Way and the Ridgeway, which forms part of this walk.

The walk also includes a section of the Icknield Way Trail. There is dispute over where the Ridgeway ends and the Icknield Way begins and for some distance the two follow a similar course. Ordnance Survey mark the departure point as Ivinghoe Beacon. Using this definition, the Ridgeway runs for 87 miles from Avebury to Ivinghoe, along a route largely characterised by chalk down paths and hill forts. Heading south from the beacon, you join part of the Icknield Way, which runs 110 miles from here all the way to Knettishall Heath in Suffolk. In The Old Ways, Robert MacFarlane follows this path accompanied by a copy of The Icknield Way by Edward Thomas (also see walk 39). Thomas’s interpretation of the route when he walked it in 1911 includes the section of the Ridgeway that runs west of Ivinghoe to Bishopstone (see walk 4). In his meditative book, he implies that ancient byways such as these become imprinted with the ‘dreams’ of each traveller that walks them. It is unclear what dreams Thomas may have left on the Icknield Way, but MacFarlane suggests that the path, with its disputed course and origins, becomes a metaphor to the poet for ‘the unknown domains that attend our beginnings and ends’. BH, KB

The following walks on this site follow sections of the Ridgeway and Icknield Way (from West to East): 51, 26, 4, 35, 17, 9, 47.

Full-day country walks in SE England and beyond

Tring circular via Ivinghoe Beacon

Click on the image below to access the full map on plotaroute

Full-day country walks in
SE England and beyond

Click on the image below to access
the full map on plotaroute