Hergest Ridge is the second studio album by English musician and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 30 August 1974 by Virgin Records.

The unexpected commercial and critical success of his debut album, Tubular Bells (1973), affected Oldfield, who decided against touring and avoided the press with his newfound fame.

Instead, he retreated to Hergest Ridge on the England–Wales border and wrote the follow-up, which he recorded in 1974 at The Manor in Oxfordshire, with Tom Newman returning as co-producer.

He arrived at Kington, a small town on the England–Wales border located in the shadow of Hergest Ridge, an elongated hill with a peak height of 425 metres (1,394 ft), which attracted Oldfield to stay in the area.

[3] He spotted a house named The Beacon on the edge of Bradnor Hill that was for sale and received permission from Virgin Records co-owner Richard Branson to buy it.

His contract with Virgin allowed him a £25 wage and continual offers added to the pressure of appearing in public, causing Oldfield to suffer from panic attacks.

He lacked any solid ideas for new music and chose to perform simple undemanding Medieval tunes with folk musician Les Penning at Penrhos Court, a local restaurant, in return for free wine.

[3] With encouragement from Branson, Oldfield started to write a follow-up to Tubular Bells following the delivery of a Farfisa organ, 4-track TEAC tape machine, and a mixing desk to his house.

[4] In 1975, Oldfield reflected on Hergest Ridge and thought it contained "some excellent ideas" but its recording was rushed, which affected the performance.

[5] After initial recording sessions at Basing Street Studios, London and Chipping Norton Studios, Oxfordshire were abandoned,[3] Oldfield recorded Hergest Ridge in the spring of 1974 at The Manor near Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire, with Tom Newman resuming his role as co-producer with Oldfield.

Oldfield frequently superimposes layers of electric guitar recorded by first amplifying heavily (to achieve a sustained organ-like quality) and then reducing the volume greatly via use of the Glorfindel Box (a custom guitar effects unit housed in plywood, which was extremely unreliable in its operation; the unit was obtained from David Bedford, who had been given the box at a party by its creator[7]).

[6] Musicians Production In 2000 Virgin re-released all of Oldfield's back catalogue, remastered in High Definition Compatible Digital, by Simon Heyworth at Chop 'em Out studios between March and April 2000, from the 1976 Boxed Quad mix.

[11][12] The "lyrics" in Part 2 are clearer in this version, although they remain undecipherable, largely comprising words made up by Clodagh Simonds.