The Chilterns are the band of chalk hills that begins about thirty miles north-west of London, and you can be walking in them within an hour of leaving a London terminus. Which station you use decides which walk you get. Ivinghoe Beacon, the eastern end of the Ridgeway National Trail, is reached from Tring on the Euston line, 38 minutes away with an Off-Peak Day Return at £22.20. Coombe Hill and Wendover Woods are reached from Wendover on the Marylebone line, 49 minutes and £24.20. Great Missenden, also from Marylebone, is 43 minutes and only £15.80.
That first paragraph corrects the thing most guides get wrong. Marylebone is the Chilterns station, but it is not the station for Ivinghoe Beacon: the trail crosses the railway at Tring, which is on the West Coast Main Line out of Euston. Our Metropolitan line guide owns the third way in, which is the Tube to Amersham and Chesham in Zone 9, and our page on Henley and Marlow covers the Thames edge of the same hills. This page is about the high ground and which train gets you to it.
The Chilterns from London at a glance
- What it is
- The Chilterns National Landscape, renamed from Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty; beech woods, chalk grassland and a steep north-western escarpment
- Ridgeway National Trail
- 87 miles (139km) from Avebury in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire, in six published sections
- Final section
- Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon, 11.8 miles (18.8km), the most wooded of the six
- Coombe Hill
- 852 feet, National Trust, obelisk memorial, views to the Cotswolds on a clear day
- Best month
- Late October and early November for the beech colour, on the trail's own advice
- Cheapest way in
- Great Missenden from Marylebone, £15.80 Off-Peak Day Return; or Amersham on a Zones 1-9 contactless cap of £16.30 off-peak
Four stations, four different days
All the fares and times below were read on National Rail Enquiries for a 10:00 departure on Thursday 8 October 2026, except the Amersham figures, which come from Transport for London's capping table.
| Station | From | Fastest | Off-Peak Day Return | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tring | Euston | 38 min | £22.20 | Ivinghoe Beacon, Pitstone Hill, Aldbury, the Ashridge escarpment |
| Wendover | Marylebone | 49 min | £24.20 | Coombe Hill, Wendover Woods, the last section of the Ridgeway |
| Great Missenden | Marylebone | 43 min | £15.80 | The Roald Dahl Museum, the Misbourne valley, beech woods |
| Amersham or Chesham | Baker Street, Metropolitan line | 46-47 min | £16.30 off-peak daily cap, Zones 1-9 | A market town, woods, and no main-line ticket at all |
Two things stand out. Great Missenden is the cheapest ticket of the four and the second fastest, which makes it the obvious first trip if you have never been. And the Tube to Amersham costs £16.30 for the whole day including everything else you do in London, which is why the Metropolitan line is the right answer for a first taste of the hills even though it is the slowest of the four. Our guide to buying British train tickets explains why the off-peak return only exists after the morning peak, and our Euston station guide covers the terminus for Tring.
Tring station is not in Tring. It sits about a mile and a half outside the town, at Tring Cutting, which is exactly why it is the right station for walkers: the Ridgeway crosses the railway there, so you step off the train more or less onto the trail. If you want the town of Tring and its natural history museum, you need the walk or a bus from the station.
Ivinghoe Beacon, and what it actually is
Ivinghoe Beacon is a chalk hill with an Iron Age hillfort on it, a trig point, and the sort of view that explains why a beacon was lit there. It is owned and managed by the National Trust as part of its Ashridge Estate, it is open at all times, and there is no admission charge. The National Trail describes it as the hill where the Ridgeway begins or ends, and its own trail data is firmer: the trail's start is Avebury in Wiltshire and Ivinghoe Beacon is the end. Call it the eastern end and you will not be wrong.
The approach on foot from Tring station is the last few miles of the Ridgeway's final section. The trail leaves the station, passes Duchies Piece nature reserve and Aldbury Nowers wood, and comes out on Pitstone Hill, from where the trail's own description says it undulates for two miles on springy turf before the final climb to the top of Beacon Hill. We could not find a published figure for the exact distance from the station to the summit, so we are not inventing one: treat it as a half-day walk out and back, and take the Ordnance Survey Explorer sheet.
The wider section, Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon, is 11.8 miles or 18.8 kilometres, and it is the most wooded of the six sections the trail publishes. It is also the only one with a railway station at each end, if you count Tring as the eastern end, which makes it the best long linear walk from London that needs no car at all.
Coombe Hill: the view, and the easy-access route
Coombe Hill above Wendover is 852 feet above sea level, one of the highest points in the Chilterns, and carries an obelisk memorial that can be seen for miles. From the top the Aylesbury Vale spreads out below and on a clear day the Cotswolds are visible. The National Trust manages it, it is Open Access Land, and cattle graze it to keep the chalk grassland free of scrub.
The useful detail, and one that is almost never mentioned, is that the route from the Low Scrubs car park at the top of the hill to the monument is classed as easy access for disabled visitors and families. Low Scrubs is at postcode HP17 0UR and fills up at weekends; the alternative is to park in Wendover at the bottom and walk up, which is the version that works if you have come by train anyway.
Wendover Woods charges up to £15 a day to park a car. Forestry England's tariff at Wendover Woods runs from £3.80 for an hour to £7.20 for three hours, £13.80 for five and £15.00 for a full day, card only, with automatic number-plate recognition at the barrier. A Wendover Woods annual membership was £81. Two people on Off-Peak Day Returns from Marylebone pay £48.40 and no parking at all, which is the rare case where the train genuinely beats driving on price.
Great Missenden, the cheapest way in
Great Missenden is 43 minutes from Marylebone and £15.80 for an Off-Peak Day Return, and the direct trains run roughly hourly through the middle of the day. The village sits in the Misbourne valley with the beech woods rising on both sides, and the Ridgeway's section from Watlington to Wendover passes to the west of it.
Its one paid attraction is the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre at 81-83 High Street, which is worth knowing about in advance because the ticketing is unusual. The museum no longer sells day tickets: entry is by 12-month annual pass, £13.95 for an adult and £9.95 for a child aged 5 to 18, valid for a year from the date of your first booking, with £1 tickets for people receiving Universal Credit. It opens Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 4.30pm, so a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday trip is a walk and nothing else.
When to go, and what the hills look like then
The National Trail is specific about the best fortnight: the final section is the most wooded of all, and it says the beech landscape looks particularly spectacular at the end of October and the beginning of November when the autumn colour is at its best. That is also when the trains are quietest and the light is best for the view from Coombe Hill. Our page on autumn colour in London covers the city version of the same fortnight.
Spring is the other good season, for bluebells in the beech woods and chalk grassland coming into flower. High summer is the weakest: the woods are dark green, the grassland is dry, and the escarpment can be genuinely hot with no shade on the open stretches. Winter is fine on the woodland sections and grim on the tops, and worth avoiding after snow, because the hills get the snow that London does not, as our page on what happens when it snows in London explains.
The escarpment faces north-west, so the views are best in the afternoon. Coombe Hill, Pitstone Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon all look out over the Vale of Aylesbury, which means the sun is behind you from lunchtime onwards. A morning train and an afternoon on the tops is the right way round, and it also means you are walking downhill into the station at dusk rather than up.
What to take, and what the hills are not
These are chalk hills, not mountains: the highest ground is under 900 feet and the paths are well marked. What catches people is the surface. Chalk with flint under it is slippery when wet and rutted where horses and cyclists use the old drove roads, and the Ridgeway is open to riders, cyclists and mobility scooter users as well as walkers, so the track is wider and rougher than a footpath. Proper shoes, not trainers, and a paper map, because the phone signal on the escarpment is patchy.
There is no ticket to buy for any of the open land, and nothing to book. The villages and small towns along the trail have pubs and shops, and the trail's own advice is that in the Chilterns section refreshments are easy to find, which is not true of the western half. Water is the thing to carry: there is none on the tops.
Is it worth the journey, and what else is near
Yes, and for a particular kind of day: a walk with a view at the end of it, reachable on an ordinary off-peak return, with no admission charge and no booking. It is a full day for the Ridgeway section and a half day for Coombe Hill or a circuit from Great Missenden. It is not a good trip in heavy rain, because the whole point is the view and the chalk turns greasy.
Two grander Buckinghamshire days sit within a few miles of the same stations, and both charge admission: Waddesdon Manor north-west of Aylesbury and Cliveden above the Thames. With younger children, Bekonscot at Beaconsfield is on the same Chiltern line and needs no walking at all. For the equivalent chalk to the south of London, Box Hill and the Surrey Hills is the same idea from Waterloo or Victoria. The rest are under day trips from London.
Frequently asked questions
Which station do you use for Ivinghoe Beacon?
Tring, on the West Coast Main Line from Euston, which takes 38 to 42 minutes with an Off-Peak Day Return at £22.20 in September 2026. The Ridgeway crosses the railway at the station itself, so you can walk from the platform. Marylebone, despite being the Chilterns terminus, does not serve Ivinghoe Beacon.
Is Ivinghoe Beacon the start of the Ridgeway?
It is the eastern end. The National Trail's own trail information gives the start as Avebury in Wiltshire and the end as Ivinghoe Beacon, 87 miles apart, although elsewhere it says the Beacon is where the trail begins or ends. Walkers going west to east finish there, and most Londoners walk it the other way round.
How long does it take to get to the Chilterns from London?
Between 38 minutes and an hour depending on the station. Tring is 38 minutes from Euston, Great Missenden 43 minutes and Wendover 49 minutes from Marylebone, and Amersham 46 minutes from Baker Street on the Metropolitan line. All four put you within walking distance of open hillside.
What is the cheapest way to reach the Chilterns?
Great Missenden at £15.80 for an Off-Peak Day Return from Marylebone, or Amersham on the Metropolitan line, where a whole day's travel in Zones 1 to 9 is capped at £16.30 off-peak on contactless and includes everything else you do in London that day. Neither has an admission charge at the other end.
When is the best time of year to walk in the Chilterns?
The end of October and the beginning of November, on the National Trail's own advice, when the beech woods on the final Ridgeway section are at their best. Spring is the other good window, for bluebells. High summer is the least rewarding, with dark woods, dry grassland and no shade on the open tops.
Sources
- National Trails - The Ridgeway: start, end, length and character (checked September 2026)
- National Trails - The Ridgeway route in six sections, including Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon (checked September 2026)
- National Trails - Ivinghoe Beacon: hillfort, trig point and National Trust management (checked September 2026)
- National Trails - Coombe Hill nature reserve and monument, including the easy-access route (checked September 2026)
- Chilterns National Landscape - the designated area and its current name (checked September 2026)
- Forestry England - Wendover Woods parking charges and membership (checked September 2026)
- Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre - annual pass prices (checked September 2026)
- National Rail Enquiries - London Euston to Tring, times and fares for Thursday 8 October 2026 (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - daily and weekly capping, Zones 1-9 (checked September 2026)