The Wessex Ridgeway is one of the links in a prehistoric route often called the Greater Ridgeway, which runs from The Wash to the South Devon coast. It extends the Ridgeway National Trail to the south-west, and at Marlborough it meets the start of the waymarked Wansdyke Path.

Wiltshire. The route passes the stone circles at Avebury, which form a World Heritage Site together with Stonehenge. It then crosses the Vale of Pewsey and skirts the northern edge of Salisbury Plain, before following the Wylye Valley and climbing to Win Green Hill.

Dorset and Devon. In Dorset the trail crosses Cranborne Chase and passes Cerne Abbas, home of the 180 ft Cerne Giant, and Pilsdon Pen. A short stretch through Devon leads back into Dorset for the finish at Lyme Regis.

Waymarking and guidebook. The route is waymarked with a Wessex wyvern on green discs, but only in Dorset. The long-standing guide is Wessex Ridgeway: Recreational Path Guide (Aurum Press, 1999). It connects with the Hardy Way, the Jubilee Trail and the East Devon Way, as well as the South West Coast Path.