Stage 11 - The Ridgeway - Overton Hill to Ogbourne St George - May 18th 2025
- John Tippetts
- May 13
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 15
Official Stage Statistics
Route distance – 9.85 miles
Total ascent – 639 feet
Total descent - 689 feet
Highest point – 887 feet
Logistics
Walk to Swindon Bus Station
Catch bus 49 from Swindon Bus Station to Red Lion Avebury. Journey time 34 mins
Walk to Ogbourne St George Liddiard's Green
Catch bus 80 to Swindon Bus Station. Journey time 35 mins
Walk to Premier Swindon Town Centre and stay overnight
NB – Since August 2025 Swindon Bus Station has thankfully closed as buses now leave/arrive from the new public transport hub in Fleming Way
My Walk
This first stage of The Ridgeway to Ogbourne St George is really just a half day walk but so many blogs and guides you look at suggest stopping here. The village has a good bus service with the number 80 bus and if you’re prepared to walk to the bypass there is also the hourly X5 service that runs between Swindon, Marlborough and Salisbury.
Today’s walk would involve a 3½ mile steady climb along a wide chalk track up to Hackpen Hill, the highest point of this stage. From there, the path would continue for a couple of miles along the ridge to Barbury Castle, a very impressive Iron Age hillfort. The rest of the stage as far as the outskirts of Ogbourne St George is one of my favourites, as you’re walking along Smeathe’s Ridge, a wide, grass covered ridge with the most amazing views. Local racehorse trainers use one side of this as gallops.
My day began at the Swindon Premier Inn and my 3rd consecutive full English breakfast! Buses are generally quite rare on a Sunday but the 49 service runs an hourly service and stops at the Red Lion in Avebury. It was little bit overcast but already the clouds were starting to break up.
The day before I’d walked to Avebury from Overton Hill, so rather than walking back to the Overton Hill car park to begin the stage, I didn’t feel guilty about starting from Avebury today to meet up with The Ridgeway. The path from Avebury to its crossing point with The Ridgeway is actually along the Wessex Ridgeway, on its way to its end point in Marlborough. Like much of the first few miles, the path was what I call a ‘standard’ chalk track with vehicle tyre tracks which I’m sure in winter become deeply rutted. Something I’ve never found the answer to is ‘why do you sometimes get a third, central track along such paths?’; maybe someone can tell me!
Anyway, by now it was turning into yet another gorgeous day, with fabulous 360° views. From Hackpen Hill you can see for miles. It’s also well known for its chalk horse, another of Wiltshire’s 8 such horses. This one was carved in 1838 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria. You can walk down from the top of the hill to the horse, as the field it’s in isn’t that steep. Ironically the field itself is home to a number of real life wild horses!
Continuing past Hackpen Hill along the chalk track I arrived at the foot of Barbury Hill where The Ridgeway left the track and continued up a path to the top of the outer rampart of Barbury Castle.
Barbury Castle is an Iron Age hillfort built around 700 BC. It has 2 ramparts (3 in places) and ditches to keep invaders out. At 860 feet above sea level it has a commanding position of the landscapes all around, so seems like it was a good decision to build the fort here. The Ridgeway passes east-west across the middle of the fort via entrances which over the years have been widened, most latterly by American troops in the 1940s who used the fort for training purposes. They widened the entrances to get their trucks into the interior! The fort is located in Barbury Castle Country Park, a 150 acre public space managed by Swindon Borough Council.
In the car park of the country park, The Ridgeway and the Sarsen Way parted company, with the Sarsen Way heading towards Swindon. The Ridgeway continued down a single track road for about 200 yards past a horse trainer’s yard (Neil King – Ridgeway Racing), before taking a left through a wooden gate onto Smeathe’s Ridge. I’ve done this particular stage a couple of times before and each time I reach this gate it’s just a ‘Wow!’ moment with the spectacular views ahead of me. The Ridgeway National Trail (I assume) have erected a unique and striking metal fingerpost here with the letters of the word ‘RIDGEWAY’ cut out as if it’s a stencil.
The views along this wide, grass covered ridge are just spectacular. To the left were gallops running along the ridge. To the right and in a hollow at the base of the ridge were more gallops and the training yard of Alan King (coincidently not a relative of Neil King). Coupled with the spring flowers and views that went on forever, this was a gorgeous ridge to walk along. Obviously, I’m sure that in the middle of winter with thick fog it would be a different kettle of fish! It was hardly surprising to come across 2 racehorse training yards here, as it’s close to Lambourn, the 2nd largest horse training centre after Newmarket. Lambourn has been dubbed the ‘Valley of the Racehorse’ as the road signs leading into the village proudly tell you.
At the end of the ridge, the path narrowed and eventually I came to a fingerpost pointing to Ogbourne St George which is where I was going to leave The Ridgeway and end this stage. I walked into the village and found my bus stop. I had to wait about 20 minutes for the number 80 bus to arrive which was no big deal. Back in Swindon I walked back to my ‘home’ at the Premier Inn.
Comments