Discover Grim’s Ditch
Grim’s Ditch is a series of disconnected banks and ditches that run through the Chilterns landscape.
The incomplete sections total 18km between Bradenham and Berkhamsted, and it is Buckinghamshire’s longest, and largest, heritage asset.
To this day, we still don’t know why the ditches were created, but possible theories include being an ancient boundary maker or defence system.
Grim’s ditches are found all over the UK but primarily in chalk landscapes, like the Chilterns. The ditches in Buckinghamshire were likely built during the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age, the same time as many Chilterns hillforts.
There are many folk stories associated with Grim’s Ditch. One legend says a giant named Grim carved a trench one night to keep human settlers away. As with many giant legends, Grim could only work at night and failed to finish the ditch by sunrise. The legend says he disappeared into the morning mist, never to be seen again, leaving behind the mighty ditch that would be known as Grim’s Ditch.
The Chilterns Heritage and Archaeology Partnership (CHAP) is the driving force in the conservation and sustainable management of heritage and archaeological assets in the Chilterns National Landscape. CHAP works in partnership with organisations and local communities throughout the National Landscape to affect significant and lasting positive change.
Chilterns Stories Books
To discover more facts and fairy tales about Grim’s Ditch, read The Story of Grim’s Ditch – part of the Chilterns Stories collection from the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Landscape Partnership.
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