Sooo a long while ago I rode the Ridgeway from Princes Risborough to Avebury as an overnight bivvy ride.

As my MTB weekend away options have been various trail parks over the past decade I was thinking I should do another national trail ride and was thinking of the Wessex Way from Avebury to Lyme Regis/Charmouth.
It seems to be a good length for a 2 day ride with a nights wild camping or at a B&B.

Rob Lee mentions it here but hasn’t uploaded the Dorset part as a .gpx

Has anyone done the Avebury to Tollard Royal part on an MTB?

I posted a similar question on Cycle Chat a few days ago and via somebody else, got a long reply from National Trails:

Thank you for your message and for outlining your visit to The Ridgeway and beyond – it would be a great personal journey to make. I’ve put quite a bit of info below- hope it’s not overwhelming! Our office looks after The Ridgeway national Trail, but I’ve gathered further info which might be useful for the other sections of your journey.

The Ridgeway, like other pre-historic routes, was made up of a series of tracks, diverging and converging. Following these routes used since prehistoric times by travellers, herdsmen and soldiers the 87 mile long Ridgeway National Trail is a short section of this prehistoric track system, once stretching about 250 miles (400 Km) from the Dorset coast to the Wash on the Norfolk coast, it provided a route over the high ground for travellers which was less wooded and drier than routes through the springline villages below. It is also said to be part of ‘the Greater Ridgeway, following most of these paths, which totals 363 miles’

The Ridgeway.
The western half of the Trail, from Overton Hill to Streatley on the River Thames, provides a marvellous route for mountain bikers (those using touring bikes might struggle a bit) – an almost continuous 43 miles (69 Km) stretch of track with only a few short sections of road. Unfortunately riders and cyclists can’t continue to the end of The Ridgeway as the route to it is a public footpath. However there is a lovely 9 miles (14km) stretch through The Chilterns that can be ridden. This is from Britwell Hill just west of Watlington to Bledlow, west of Princes Risborough.
Further information can be found on our website:
http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway/information

Use the map to help plan your visit.
http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway/plan

Turn layers of data on and off by ticking or unticking the boxes under the map- for example ‘cycling information’ Use the Zoom tool and arrows to navigate the map.

If you want to continue to ride east of the Thames you have two good routes to follow. Please find details below about The Ridgeway and cycling further east:

The Swans Way
The Swans Way starts from Goring-on-Thames, just across the river from Streatley, and travels to Bledlow where it turns north away from the line of The Ridgeway.
http://www.gps-routes.co.uk/routes/home.nsf/routeslinkswalks/the-swans-way-walking-and-cycle-route

http://www.chilternsaonb.org/ccbmaps/173/137/swan-s-way.html

Icknield Way Riders’ Route
At Bledlow cyclists and horseriders can then join the Icknield Way Riders’ Route which provides a good alternative route to The Ridgeway as far as Pitstone Hill, just a couple of miles from Ivinghoe Beacon. http://www.icknieldwaytrail.org.uk/html/route.html
Looking at their website this looks like the old route to connect you to Norfolk if you wanted to go that far !

Heading south
To the south, the Wessex Ridgeway path runs from Marlborough and Avebury along the northern and western edge of Salisbury Plain and the Dorset Downs, via Devizes, Warminster, Heytesbury, Hindon and Tollard Royal, to the South Coast at Lyme Regis (136 miles). Like The Ridgeway, this path links a number of iron-age hill forts, and provides excellent walking along high chalk downs, with extensive views. The section of the Wessex Ridgeway in Dorset (63 miles) has been up-graded to National Trail standards by the Dorset Countryside Ranger Service under a LEADER project. A long-distance route, referred to by the Ramblers Association as the Greater Ridgeway, following most of these paths, totals 363 miles and is detailed in a published guide-book by Ray Quinlan.

There is a proposal by The Friends of The Ridgeway to create a 38-mile walking route between the present end of The Ridgeway National Trail at Overton Hill near Avebury in Wiltshire, and the ancient Iron Age hill-fort of Old Sarum near Salisbury. The route will re-create the ancient Ridgeway route linking the World Heritage Sites of Avebury and Stonehenge.

http://www.ridgewayfriends.org.uk/greatstonesway.html

http://www.greatstonesway.org.uk/

Regarding publications:
For details on publications, please visit the trail books and merchandise page
http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway/guide-books.

The link on this page takes you through to Stanfords, who are based in Covent Garden, London.
Please visit their website for details:
http://www.stanfords.co.uk/

Publications include:
The latest edition of The Ridgeway Companion (isbn 978-0-9561074-5-9 ) which is a guide to facilities accommodation and services along The Ridgeway is now available from this office (£4.95 plus UK postage) if you prefer printed information.

The Ridgeway National Trail Guide (isbn 978 1 78131 063 2)
by Anthony Burton. Published by Aurum Press 2013. This is the official Guide split into convenient sections with written route description, 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey maps and circular routes. In the guide, the walk is broken up into sections of around 9- 15 miles a day to suit an average day walking. Each section has a summary map to give you the rough area.

Ridgeway Map – Published by Harvey Maps.
If you would like a detailed map, the Harvey Ridgeway map covers the whole of the Trail on one map. A detailed 1:40,000 scale waterproof map with the entire route on one map giving information about accommodation, food, water points, banks, services and facilities.

The publications listed above are also available from the National Trails Office by downloading the order form (these are for UK orders only) and sending a cheque with the completed form. We regret that cash or card payments are not accepted but if you are able to, please send a cheque made payable to ‘National Trails Trading’ along with your publication title and send it to our address below.

There is also a Ridgeway A-Z Adventure map (isbn 978 1 78257 000 4) which you could source from Amazon or Stanfords- this is an A5 size book format map.

Hope this helps you to plan your trip.

Kind regards

Elaine

PS The prevailing wind is from the west –

Elaine Townson
National Trails
Information and Administrative Officer

Direct line: 01865 810224
Website: http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/

Wow that’s comprehensive – it looks like some OS maps and record my own gpx files though