The history of ancient trackways across southern heaths

Heathland is a human landscape

Stand on a sandy ridge in Surrey, Hampshire or Dorset and you might feel you are in a wild place. Yet southern heathland is not wilderness. It was made by people: cleared, grazed, cut and burned over thousands of years. The old paths that crisscross these heaths are among the clearest clues to that past. They are not random trails. They follow dry ground, link settlements and markets, and often trace routes older than the roads we use today.

Lowland heath grows on poor, acidic, sandy soils — the Bagshot Beds of Surrey, the Lower Greensand of Sussex, the gravels and sands of Hampshire and Dorset. These soils were never much good for arable farming, so people used them differently: grazing livestock, cutting turf and bracken, gathering heather and broom. The trackways joined those activities together. They also kept travellers out of the wet clay vales and boggy hollows, which is why so many old routes run along ridges and higher ground.

The first travellers: prehistoric routes across the heaths

Long before turnpikes or railways, people moved across southern England on foot and with pack animals. They carried flint, bronze, salt, pottery and livestock. Many of these routes are known as ridgeways, because they follow the drier, higher land. Some are still walkable today.

• The Harrow Way — sometimes called the Old Way, this ancient route runs west from Kent across Surrey and Hampshire. It passes near heathland edges and connects with older trackways heading further west.
• The Dorset Ridgeway — a prehistoric route across the South Dorset Downs and heathland fringes, linking the coast with inland settlements. Bronze Age barrows often sit beside it, marking the skyline.
• The Ridgeway and Icknield Way — further north and east, these chalk ridgeways show the same principle: travel high, travel dry, and use the same route for centuries.

These were not built roads. They were worn routes, widened by hooves and feet, and they shifted slightly over time. A fallen tree, a new boundary or a boggy patch could push travellers a few metres to one side. That is why ancient trackways often appear as braided paths rather than a single line.

Drovers, smugglers and packhorses

In the medieval and early modern periods, southern heaths became busy corridors of trade. Drovers moved cattle, sheep, pigs and geese towards London and other market towns. Packhorse trains carried wool, cloth, fish, salt and coal. Smugglers used the same lonely paths to move kegs, tea and brandy inland from the coast, avoiding excise men on the turnpike roads.

• Drovers needed wide verges for grazing and resting animals. Drove roads are often broad, with soft edges and occasional ponds or wells.
• Packhorse trains used narrow, well-drained paths and simple bridges. Look for low parapets and narrow spans on surviving packhorse bridges in the New Forest and on Dartmoor.
• Smugglers favoured heathland because it was easy to see strangers approaching. Routes were kept secret, but the paths themselves survive as sunken lanes and quiet tracks.

Heathland was also a working landscape. Commoners cut turf for fuel, bracken for animal bedding and heather for thatch. Pigs were turned out for pannage in autumn. These everyday journeys created a dense web of paths, many of which are now public rights of way.

Reading the signs in the landscape

Once you know what to look for, ancient trackways are surprisingly easy to spot. They leave marks on the ground and in place names.

• Holloways — deep, sunken lanes worn by hooves and feet, then deepened by rainwater. They are often shaded by trees and feel like green tunnels.
• Names on the map — look for “Drove Road”, “Old Way”, “Harrow Way”, “Pack Lane”, “Salt Lane” and “Gallows Lane”. Gallows often stood on heaths beside main routes, as a warning to travellers.
• Boundary markers — old stones, marker trees and parish boundary banks often follow trackways. A line of yews or Scots pines may also mark an old route.
• Barrows and tumuli — Bronze Age burial mounds frequently sit beside ancient paths. They were meant to be seen by travellers.

Coffin roads, or corpse roads, are another reminder of past lives. These routes carried the dead to churchyards across heaths and moors. Some survive in the New Forest and on the edges of Dartmoor. They were often straight, because the dead were believed to travel directly.

Walking the old ways today

You do not need to be a historian to enjoy these routes. A good Ordnance Survey Explorer map at 1:25,000 scale shows paths, access land and ancient monuments clearly. Wear boots, carry water and check for livestock before you set out. The following areas offer excellent walking on and around ancient trackways:

• Surrey — Thursley Common, Frensham Great Pond and the Devil’s Punch Bowl. Look for sandy tracks linking heath, mire and pine woodland.
• Hampshire — Woolmer Forest, the Deadwater Valley and the northern fringes of the New Forest. The Harrow Way crosses this area.
• Sussex — Ashdown Forest and the Serpent Trail, which winds through heathland and woodland. Many of its sections follow older paths.
• Dorset — Wareham Forest, Hartland Moor and the South Dorset Ridgeway. Smugglers’ routes once crossed these heaths.

Walking an ancient trackway is a slow pleasure. You are following people who carried salt, drove cattle, mourned their dead and dodged the excise man. The route may be older than any building you can see.

Caring for paths and heaths

Lowland heath is one of the rarest habitats in Europe. The UK has lost around 80% of its lowland heath since 1800. Ancient trackways help conserve what remains, because walkers on a clear path cause less damage than walkers spread across fragile heather, lichen and moss.

• Stay on the path — even when it is muddy. Walking around mud widens the path and erodes the heath edge.
• Keep dogs close — especially between March and July, when ground-nesting birds such as nightjars and woodlarks are breeding. Livestock may also be grazing.
• No fires or BBQs — heathland is tinder-dry in summer. A discarded match or glass bottle can start a fire that destroys decades of growth.
• Volunteer — local heathland groups often need help clearing scrub, repairing paths and monitoring wildlife. Practical conservation keeps these old routes open.

These paths were made by feet, hooves and daily need. They still work best when we use them lightly. Follow them, learn their names, and you become part of a long story of movement across the southern heaths.