51km A Chiltern Gravel Overnighter
Sunset from Ivinghoe Beacon
Ride Overview
You’ve left what you need to do earlier than usual and have set off for a mini-overnight adventure Your is bike packed with a sleeping bag and a set of warm clothes. You’ve taken a pre-16.00 train from Euston (no bikes on commuting lines between 1600-1900). Within 40 minutes you’re on the bike and heading up onto a chalk ridge ready for a wonderful early evening glow of sun setting over the Vale of Aylesbury. Once you’ve completed your standing and marvelling at the beauties laid out before you, you ride quickly before it becomes truly dark, along wide and easy gravel tracks to the church on the hill. It stands illuminated by late evening light, on a hill surrounded by fields. (If you’re really late spot lights shine upon the 13th century limestone walls as if guiding you to your night’s stay).
Champing is camping in a church. Book ahead and everything is laid out for you; the camp bed (bedding too if you wish), battery operated night lights, a kettle, tea and coffee. Lying under the old tower whilst the clock quietly ticks away like a partner’s heartbeat, you spend a magically peaceful night before watching the sun stream through the windows and illuminating the wall paintings and medieval wood carvings. The village has a bakery and they will provide you with an essential pre-ride bacon roll as well as coffee. Fuelled, you set off riding on some fabulous green roads used for millennia. Up on the Dunstable Downs, Eastern England’s highest point, it’s you, the sky and the gliders spiralling in the thermals above. Continue past Whipsnade zoo where exotic growls, roars and shrieks whip across the grassy enclosures, then its bridleways through woods (carpeted in bluebells in the spring) and around field margins. If you don’t need to rush back to work on an early train, stay for lunch at one of England’s best pubs.
The route is only 50km, with many views and woods and country along the way with nothing too testing. With fast and regular trains back to the city, the route can be ridden as a morning ride, followed by lunch, pre-booked at Frithsden (a Good Food Guide UK top 100). But the thrill of this route, is to combine it with very special night away.
Reviewed and amended April 26
Ride Practicalities
DISTANCE: 53km TOTAL ASCENT: 672m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: The whole route uses bridleways, by-ways and quiet country lanes. A gravel bike is recommended. In winter some of the paths can be muddy and chalk is never good to ride on when wet RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS/: Edlesborough; Heirloom Café, Dunstable Downs; View Café (NT) Stoke Row; Stoke Row Store, The Crooked Billet, Goring; The Goring Grocer, Ewelme; The Village Store, Princes Risborough; Godwin’s Bakery, Aldbury; Church Farm Café, The Greyhound, Ashridge Estate; Ashridge Monument Café, Ashridge House; The Bakehouse; Frithsden (near Berkhamstead); The Alford Arms, CAMPING/CHAMPING/ACCOMODATION: Edlesborough; St. Mary the Virgin (Champing) Camping in a church NEARBY MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Tring, Berkhamstead, PLACES TO VISIT; Edlesborough: St. Mary the Virgin church, Ashridge Estate; Ashridge House and bluebell woods LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: The Chiltern Explorer
Ride Notes
Trains from Euston to Berkhamstead are regular and fast. There’s space for bikes, which are free and don’t need pre-booking. Within forty minutes you’re standing, probably alone, on a long platform looking at chalk hills rising from behind the huge multi-story car park, where the cars are layered like apples on a tarte Normande.
Duke of Bridgewater Monument, Ashridge
A quick climb up a busy-ish road (use the pavement if the traffic is bothersome - it is greatly underused) before turning off onto a track across Berkhamstead Common. Muddy after rain, rutted in high summer with plenty of tree routes of catch out those not paying full attention, it is for all that a lovely stretch through woods, especially if you’ve just jumped off the train after a day at work. The route takes you to the heart of the Ashridge Estate.
The blue carpet of Dockey Wood
The Ashridge Estate, variously owned by the Bonhommes, (what a name for a group of monks - ‘good men’), and later by the Tudor monarchs who apparently loved the place. The first Duke of Bridgewater bought the estate from the Crown and successive Dukes used it as their private playground until Lloyd George’s Death Duties made the passing of huge estates onto the next generation all but impossible. In the early years of the twentieth century, the House became a Conservative (party) college before coming under the on-going control of the Hult International Business School. The Estate is managed by the National Trust. The wide, shared path is well maintained and you ride through the woods, which in spring are bursting with blue and green. (The woods are famed for their bluebells). If you are riding the route in late April/early May, turn right once you arrive at the road in order to see Dockey Wood. It is one of the most spectacular places in England to see Hyacinthoides non-scripta, the English bluebell.
If you’re up for a short walk, the second short diversion takes you onto Ivinghoe Beacon. Stay for a while and gaze at the soft-hued view of the Vale of Aylesbury. Watch the dusk deepen, the trees shadow, the day still. You sit on billions of exoskeletons formed 65 millions years ago, when the Beacon was part of a warm tropical sea. From the top, you’ll see Edlesborough Church a couple of miles away. Once ready, head down the steep road into Ivinghoe. You’ll have to endure about 600 metres of busy road before you turn off onto a good-to-ride bridleway which takes you the door of the church.
Stay the night. (£55 for sole occupancy of the church. Book ahead). Lie in darkness amidst the stillness of ancient stones. You will rarely have had, if ever, a grander place in which to sleep. As dawn illuminates the walls, you’ll see the ‘treasure house of delights.’ A dragon. A mermaid suckling a lion, an image of a medieval mason. A pre-Raphaelite God on his throne surrounded by Saints. Stained glass, a slender pulpit. A Medieval carved rood screen.
Breakfast at the Heirloom café in the village before heading onto the green roads surrounding Totternhoe which take you up onto the Dunstable Downs, the highest point in Eastern England. Here, Bronze Age chiefs were buried, Saxons executed their enemies, highwaymen were hung and oranges rolled down the hill on Good Friday. If the wind is right you’ll have The London Gliding club spiralling on the thermals above you.
The Alford Arms, Frithsden
Fabulous riding along the edge of the Downs takes you to Whipsnade Zoo from where you may hear the odd exotic screach/roar/grunt. There may even be zebras grazing in the enclosure close to the path. The route continues alongside fields, through woods, up and over waves of hills. Prepare for mud after heavy rain, or a bumpy thrill of a ride in dry weather. There’s an option to ride into the hamlet of Great Gaddeson with its timeless cottages and interesting church.
Follow the route through a canyon - a deep track with 5 metre brick walls, and ride up and over the next hill before arriving at the Alford Arms, a real country pub serving food worth stopping for. It is listed as one of the 100 best pubs in Britain. Then its up another hill, more lanes and bridleways take you to Pottern End, before the fabulous downhill finish on a quiet lane into Berkhamstead.
The final stretch is alongside the Grand Union Canal and passes the best beer pub in the Chilterns; the Rising Sun. No food, but a good pint beside the canal. From ‘The Riser’ as its locally known, it’s a matter of metres back to the train station.
All the details given on this route are given in good faith. However, situations on the ground can change, so if you know of any access issues, closures, or have any thoughts and feedback on the route, please include them in the comments section below.
Please subscribe to the website so as to be alerted to new great routes
WINNER:BEST EUROPEAN GUIDED RIDES EXPERIENCE 2025
wheremywheelsgo.uk is a Feedspot UK Cycling top 20 website