Up the lane to Segsbury Camp
From the Greyhound we turn left and, opposite the church, left again into a no-through lane that runs straight up towards the downs. It is a pleasant climb between hedges, with gaps giving views back over Letcombe Regis and the Vale. After a mile or so the tarmac gives way to gravel and the track cuts right through the middle of Segsbury Camp, also called Letcombe Castle. This Iron Age hillfort covers about 26 acres, with a bank and ditch and four entrances. Oxford University excavations in 1996–97 found that it was used on and off between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC, perhaps as a place where people gathered to manage and trade sheep. An information board stands where the track meets the Ridgeway.
East along the Ridgeway
We turn left along the Ridgeway, here a wide, fenced gravel track. Unusually, the best views on this stretch are to the south, over the rolling Berkshire Downs, because the ground rises slightly between us and the Vale. We cross the A338 carefully, right then left, and carry on past White House Farm, where the Court Hill Centre is a short step off the route to the left. The trail then continues east as a broad grass-and-chalk ride, often rutted, with a mast on the skyline ahead and, to our left, the view opening out towards Didcot and the Thames Valley. We cross the B4494 by the car park and soon reach the memorial.
Lord Wantage’s monument
The tall stone cross commemorates Robert Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage, who won the Victoria Cross at the Alma and Inkerman in the Crimean War and helped found the British National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War, which became the British Red Cross. His wife had the monument put up after his death in 1901. The couple lived on the Lockinge estate below, and he also gave Wantage its statue of King Alfred.
Down past the gallops
Opposite the monument we turn left, downhill towards a small wood, cross a gravel track and bear left through the trees on a wide lane. Where the lane bends right we keep ahead on a grass track with racehorse gallops beside us. The track runs north alongside Goddard’s Road, the gallops railing on our right. Near the end of the railing we turn left through a gap in the trees, cross the B4494 and follow the byway west for about a mile to the A338.
Court Hill and home
At the A338 we turn left for about 100 metres, then right over a low barrier onto a path that crosses the field to Courthill Road near the Court Hill Centre, whose café is popular with Ridgeway walkers. From here the lane runs downhill all the way back to Letcombe Regis.
What to look out for
Red kites are almost always overhead; buzzards and kestrels hunt the same slopes. From late winter into July, skylarks sing high above the fields, and corn buntings, with their jangling, key-rattling song, perch on fence posts along the Ridgeway. Yellowhammers call from the hedges. Brown hares are easiest to spot in early spring, when crops are short. Look along the trackside banks in June and July for chalk flowers such as knapweed, scabious and bird’s-foot trefoil, which bring in butterflies including marbled whites.
Before you go
Take OS Explorer 170. There is no shade on the Ridgeway and no water between the Greyhound and Court Hill, so carry plenty in summer. In winter the grass rides can be slippery and wet, and the downs are exposed to wind and rain, so pack a warm layer. Allow enough daylight: from the monument it is still about 4 miles back to the start.
Make it longer or shorter
For a walk of about 4 miles, turn left at the bridleway junction past White House Farm and follow it back to the A338 by the Court Hill Centre, skipping the monument. To make a full day of it, start in Wantage and walk up via Letcombe Regis, or continue east from the monument to Scutchamer Knob and back (about 4½ miles extra).
