The trail has an alternative route south of the village of Toddington that takes you into the village itself and rejoins the original trail on the other side of the M1 and railway close to Sundon Hills Country Park. The alternative route adds a net 1 mile to the length of the trail.

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An additional, more drastic alternative route gets round the issue faced by walkers at the end of the trail at Knetishall Heath which has no public transport facilities. This alternative route leaves the Icknield Way Path at Barrows Corner, north of The King’s Forest near Elvedon. It then proceeds into Thetford which is blessed with buses and trains. You don’t however get to Knetishall Heath which is where you need to be if you want to start the Peddars Way! The alternative route is 5½ miles long and shaves about 10 miles off the Icknield Way Path. I wouldn’t feel happy doing this as it would take away the sense of achievement of completing the trail. I therefore ignored this alternative route, put my hand in my pocket and paid £20 for a taxi to get me from Knetishall Heath to Thetford.    

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The trail was devised by the Icknield Way Association and supported by the Ramblers Association. It was part of a plan to achieve National Trail status for the whole length of the ancient trackways linking the South Coast and The Wash.   

Here’s a link to the Icknield Way Association’s web page that goes into the history and environment of the Icknield Way Path - Icknield Way Association

In 2004 the Icknield Way was further developed into a multi-use route so that most of the route is also available for horse riders and off-road cyclists providing a complete walking and riding link between the two National Trails. The Icknield Way Trail is a 170 mile route linking The Ridgeway at Hampton Wainhill, near Chinnor in Buckinghamshire with the Peddars Way in Suffolk. Wherever possible the Icknield Way Trail follows the Icknield Way Path but diverges at several locations to ensure the Icknield Way Trail follows bridleways, byways and where necessary roads. Walkers can pass over footpaths and therefore can access more direct and/or scenic routes.

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In 2007, a 7 mile linking route from the Chilterns Gateway Centre at Dunstable Downs to the start/finish of The Ridgeway was created at Ivinghoe Beacon which has no facilities at all other than a car park. The Ridgeway Link uses the route of the Icknield Way Path that was upgraded to make it stile-free. Steps were also added on one particularly steep section.

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As neither the Icknield Way Path nor the Icknield Way Trail have National Trail status, they don’t have wooden fingerboards that bear the familiar acorn that symbolises a National Trail; instead, they have metal signage, painted green with white writing and bearing a stone axe symbol. There is also quite a raft of circular metal waymarkers that cater for both trails and whether the path being indicated is a byway, bridleway, footpath, permissive path or walkers’ route only. The Ridgeway Link section also has its own waymarkers. All waymarkers bear the stone axe symbol.    

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