11km A Champing Easy/Family Ride
Sunset from Ivinghoe Beacon
Ride Overview
The lovely and relatively easy route requires you to drive a couple of miles from Edelsborough Church up to the car park(s) on the Ashridge estate. After coffee perhaps in the Bakehouse Café and a stroll around the gardens, you set off along the estate drive with its little dips and rises towards the estate village of Little Gaddesden. The Church - signed 300m off route - is a gem of a country church, filled with memorials and monuments to the Bridgewaters.
The route then rides along the quiet lane (which can be busy on bluebell weekends but is wide enough to allow cars to both see you and pass safely) to Docket Wood, one of the most spectacular bluebell woods in all England. You’ll have to lock your bikes up by the gate and walk around the well-laid paths.
Before turning left onto a well surfaced track through the woods of the Estate, you may choose to ride onto Ivinghoe Beacon, the site of an Iron Age Hill Fort and a place that has spectacular views, including down to Edelsborough Church.
Along the almost flat path through woods of the Estate to the magnificent monument erected to commemorate the work of Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, the ‘Father of English Canals’. There’s a café and National Trust shop nearby.
To finish the ride, it is best to ride along the paths parallel to the the drive which leads from the carpark to the road. Take care on the 100m of road (there is a footpath beside it on which you can walk your bikes), cross over and ride down the metalled drive back towards the house.
Reviewed and amended April 26
Ride Practicalities
DISTANCE: 11km TOTAL ASCENT: 121m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: The whole route uses the private driveway of Ashridge House, a country lane leading to Docket Wood (bluebell wood) and Ivinghoe Beacon. The rest of the route is on a well surfaced cycleway through the Ashridge Estate. RECOMMENDED CAFÈS/PUBS/: Ashridge Estate; Ashridge Monument Café, Ashridge House; The Bakehouse;
Ride Notes
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.
Duke of Bridgewater Monument, Ashridge
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.
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