Pitstone Hill, Ashridge and Aldbury Walk: full route

Tring station was opened by the London and Birmingham Railway in 1837 and was constructed by the railway engineer Robert Stephenson.

The Ridgeway National Trail starts in the World Heritage Site of Avebury and crosses the chalk ridges of the North Wessex Downs and Chilterns AONBs – a total of 87 miles. The Chilterns section travels through woodlands, nature reserves and quiet valleys, also passing several magnificent viewpoints along the Chilterns ridge. Some people argue that this is Britain’s oldest routeway but this idea is generally out of favour today.

Aldbury Nowers Nature Reserve: A SSSI managed by the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. In the warm south facing slopes there are many of the flower species typical of unimproved chalk grassland (milkwort, rock rose, clustered bellflower, lady’s bedstraw) and possibly one of the rare butterfly species (Duke of Burgundy, Geen Hairstreak, Essex, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers).

Pitstone Hill is managed by the National Trust and is a nesting site for skylarks and meadow pipits. Directly below is one of the quarries of the former Pitstone Cement Works which closed in the 1990s. This particular quarry is still active producing chalk for agricultural use. The footpath runs alongside a section of Grim’s Ditch. Named after a Nordic god, it’s part of a series of linear earthworks that run from Bradenham to Ivinghoe, and remains one of the great mysteries of Buckinghamshire. Following investigations archaeologists now generally agree that the earthwork probably dates from the early to mid-Iron Age, c700BC.

Much of the area along this section of the walk is part of the estate. It dates back over 700 years to when a monastery was founded which continued to flourish until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539. He bequeathed the estate to the future Queen Elizabeth I who lived there before being arrested by her half-sister Mary and taken to the Tower of London. Later, the estate was bought by the Egerton family one of whose decedents became the first Duke of Bridgewater. The most famous member of the family was the “Canal Duke”, who commissioned the building of the Bridgewater Canal which opened in 1761, and is regarded as the first true canal in Britain. In 1853 the estate passed to Lord Brownlow, whose family held on to it until 1925 when it was split up, with much of the parkland and surrounding area passing to The National Trust. The parkland is a haven for wildlife and is famous for its herds of fallow deer. The Bridgewater monument was erected in 1832 in memory of the Duke of Bridgewater. It’s 33m high, with 170 steps to the top and is open to the public.

Aldbury was listed in the Domesday Book as Elderberie, meaning ‘old burh’, or old fortification. The village has been used on many occasions by film companies, notable productions include Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse, The Dirty Dozen and Bridget Jones.