[HN Gopher] The Ridgeway: The 5k-year-old pathway that's Britain...
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The Ridgeway: The 5k-year-old pathway that's Britain's oldest road
Author : andsoitis
Score : 83 points
Date : 2024-07-24 13:47 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| reidacdc wrote:
| Interestingly (to me), I learned about the "ridgeway" just a few
| days ago, from Jim Leary's episode on the "History Rage" podcast,
| where historians vent about popular historical misconceptions.
|
| For the Ridgeway in particular, the claim from the podcast is
| that there is in fact no archaeological evidence that this was a
| prehistoric routeway, nor that it was a single coherent long-
| distance entity. The claim is that it appears this way because
| highland areas and ridges are better preserved, because they're
| generally not cultivated and are less subject to erosion, so the
| whole thing is just a selection effect.
|
| Discussion starts around 39:25 in the podcast[1]
|
| Jim Leary has a book about this, "Footmarks: A Journey into our
| Restless Past"[2].
|
| To be fair, I personally am ill-equipped to assess the claim, and
| it does look like an interesting place to ramble. The linked
| article also, to continue being fair, does not call it a road,
| they limit themselves to calling it a "prehistoric trackway",
| which may well be defensible.
|
| [1]
| https://www.historyrage.com/episodes/episode/69e607e6/histor...
|
| [2] https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/footmarks-a-journey-into-
| our...
| rvense wrote:
| It's a nice place to walk, either way.
|
| I walked part of the way about (oh dear) twenty years ago and
| arrived in Stonehenge for the summer solstice bash. That was
| fun.
| yzydserd wrote:
| The Ordnance Survey route, map, and landmarks
| https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/guides/the-ridgeway/
| tomthorns wrote:
| I was just coming here to question how the article doesn't
| include a map.
| milliams wrote:
| I also found it in OpenStreetMap:
| https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/8879 Makes it much
| easier to zoom in.
| pjs_ wrote:
| See also
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icknield_Way
| dayofthedaleks wrote:
| Looks great for bikepacking.
| ralferoo wrote:
| The King Alfred's Way bikepacking route [1] includes part of
| the Ridgway. I planned to do this last summer, but didn't get
| chance, and I'm not really fit at the moment enough having
| barely cycled since last summer, but maybe I'll get around to
| doing this next year. It does look like a great route though.
|
| [1] https://www.cyclinguk.org/king-alfreds-way
| peter_edin wrote:
| I bike packed this route with a good friend 2 years ago and
| had an absolutely amazing time. Neither of us were super fit
| but we managed it comfortably in 4 days (although our route
| planning left a little to be desired - 90 miles in one day
| along the Ridgeway was a mistake).
|
| The Ridgeway itself was arguably the most challenging part of
| King Alfred's way - a couple of large climbs, plus large
| sections of very rocky terrain made it tough going at points.
|
| Overall though, a beautiful route and I would highly
| recommend it!
| jvvw wrote:
| I walked it the year before last and it is indeed! It's
| interestingly varied, remarkably quiet and a nice length and
| amount of effort.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| Nice to see something from my home area on HN! I think it's a bit
| of a stretch to say it heads diagonally though. It meanders
| rather a lot.
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| I had wondered if there were any relation to The Ridgeway in
| Enfield. Perhaps there are many ridgeways.
| zeristor wrote:
| There's Ridgeway Park in Chingford, I guess it's at a top of a
| steep rise from the river Lea.
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