What links the Jurassic Coast in Dorset with the Wash in Norfolk?

Traversing a chalk ridge, each component path retains its identity and waymarks, but common to all routes are the hillforts and barrows and the permanent living landscape features. These routes include the Wessex Ridgeway, Cranborne Droves Way, Sarsen Way, The Ridgeway National Trail, the Icknield Way and Peddars Way National Trail through south eastern England.

Archaeologist and broadcaster Mary-Ann Ochota is President of CPRE, the Countryside Charity, and Patron of the Ridgeway National Trail said: “This new, unified Great Chalk Way is a magical route, an epic that leads you from one side of the country to the other. It’s a deeply historic route – you’re travelling in the footsteps, and hoofsteps, of many generations of ancient people, and en route you’re confronted by some of their most intriguing monuments – from secret, carved caves, to hillside white horses, to the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world.

The Great Chalk Way is also a connection of beautiful, nature-rich and ever-changing geological, natural and farmed landscapes – from the wind-stripped Norfolk fens to the lofty beech woodlands of the Chilterns, to the wide downs of Wessex and through Dorset to the Jurassic coast. And it’s also hugely accessible – close to southern England’s towns and cities, with transport links, and terrain that isn’t too daunting for beginners. I hope the Great Chalk Way becomes one of the best-loved and celebrated long distance routes in the country.

One that people share with friends and family, and across generations. I hope it inspires a new generation of adventurers, nature lovers and history fans and becomes a rite of passage. Whether you walk or ride it in one long journey or in short stages over a lifetime, it will deliver experiences to treasure and memories to savour. What a gift, and a way to celebrate our countryside, our people, our history and nature.”

Today a combination of footpaths, bridleways, byways and the occasional road are how you will travel along this route packed with great stories and legends of our past, all set in typical English countryside. Along the way you can explore important historic sights such as Hambledon Hill, Salisbury, Avebury’s stone circles, the mysterious Uffington White Horse, Dunstable Downs, Royston Caves and Knettishall Heath.