Ashdown House
This delightful late 17th century house has been described by Pevsner as the "perfect dolls house".
It was built by the 1st Earl Craven on this isolated site for Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the sister of King Charles I, to escape to from plague-ridden London.
By all accounts Elizabeth, however, died without ever seeing the house finished. Built of chalk blocks quarried locally, the house is now owned by the National Trust . It is open from April to the end of October on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2 - 6 pm. Further information by telephoning (01494) 528051.
The site is managed by the National Trust and can be visited at any time.
Waylands Smithy
Standing in a clump of beech trees just 50m north of The Ridgeway, Wayland's Smithy is a fine example of a New Stone Age long barrow built over 5000 years ago as a burial chamber. It is probably a thousand years older than the oldest parts of Stonehenge.
During excavations a smaller long barrow of an earlier date was discovered beneath the mound with burials in wooden chambers. The main entrance is flanked by four 3m high sarsen stones probably dragged here by Stone Age people from the Marlborough Downs to the southwest.
It was the Saxons who gave this long barrow its name. Wayland was a mythical Saxon smith god and local legend has it that his magic forge is contained in the barrow. It is said that if you leave your horse here overnight with suitable payment by the tomb then the animal will have been reshod on your return the next day.
The site is managed by the National Trust and can be visited at any time.
Uffington White Horse
This is the oldest and most famous of the hill figures carved into the chalk hills over which The Ridgeway runs.
Debate about the age of this elegant figure has continued for years with dates ranging from the Bronze Age to Saxon times. Was it cut in Iron Age times as a tribal emblem by those who constructed the hill fort near it or did it commemorate one of King Alfred's victories over the Danes? However excavations during the 1990s have established that this figure is indeed ancient, dating from around 1000 BC during the Bronze Age.
The shape of the Horse is not easily made out from the top of the hill and it is better seen from the bottom of Woolstone Hill or further north. In fact the best place to view it is from the air and the thought is that those who cut it wanted it to be seen by the Gods as well as by men.
The White Horse together with Uffington Castle are managed by the National Trust and can be visited at any time.
Other hill figures close to The Ridgeway are: The Hackpen White Horse, Watlington White Mark, Bledlow Cross and Whiteleaf Cross.