This section is 11.8 miles (18.8km) long. A map of it, and a route profile that gives an indication of the amount of up and downhill, can be downloaded below.
This relatively short final section is the most wooded of all The Ridgeway.
This relatively short final section is the most wooded of all The Ridgeway. Here you're deep within the Chiltern Hills, justly renowned for its wooded landscape which looks particularly spectacular at the end of October and early November when autumn colours are at their best. However the last couple of miles are a complete contrast; an open landscape reminiscent of the rolling downlands west of the River Thames.
Trees!
From Wendover as far as Wigginton you are almost always either passing through woods or along the edges of them. In many places you'll be surrounded by magnificent beech trees, their smooth, straight, silver trunks reaching upwards towards the sky. In other woodlands you'll find there's a greater variety with a mix of broadleaf and coniferous trees
Road, Water and Rail
As you descend from Wigginton you'll find that road, water and rail transport routes are all squeezed into a valley, as they were in the Goring Gap earlier. First you reach the busy A41 trunk road, but you cross it high above on a footbridge built specially to carry The Ridgeway and it's soon forgotten. Next comes the Grand Union Canal, once a thriving commercial waterway but nowadays primarily a peaceful recreational route for boaters and walkers, and finally the railway at Tring Station.
Ivinghoe Beacon
The last few miles are delightful. After Tring Station you'll pass through Duchies Piece nature reserve and Aldbury Nowers wood before emerging onto Pitstone Hill where, in good weather, the views of the rest of your journey to Ivinghoe Beacon are outstanding. From here The Ridgeway undulates for the next two miles on springy turf until the final climb to the top of Beacon Hill itself. Managed by the National Trust as part of its Ashridge Estate this is a splendid place to finish and to savour the views of the Vale of Aylesbury, or to look back from where you have come.