The Ridgeway long-distance footpath ends and the Icknield Way Path starts in the site on Ivinghoe Beacon.

An Iron Age fort on Ivinghoe Beacon and a tumulus on Gallows Hill are Scheduled Monuments.

The site is part of the National Trust's Ashridge Estate, apart from a small area which belongs to Buckinghamshire County Council.

[1][2][3] The site is biologically rich, and it has varied habitats including unimproved chalk grassland, which has some nationally rare species, semi-natural woodland and scrub.

An area of ploughed land on Gallows Hill has been retained within the SSSI because some of the weeds are nationally scarce.