Distance: Approximately 15.5 miles or 25 km for those more metrically minded
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Train: Take the 9:30 AM Portsmouth Harbour train from London Waterloo to arrive at Haslemere at 10:20. The faster return trains from Haslemere are on the hour and at 32 past. Buy a day return to Haslemere.
I had planned to post the Haslemere to Farnham walk in its standard format because it comes into its true glory during the height of heather season with vast stretches of the purple stuff! However, engineering works scuppered that plan -- BUT, I had a dim memory of once years ago creating a circular route that take in most of the heather of SWC 144 -- but then takes you back to Haslemere following the route of Book1/Walk 27 (Milford to Haslemere) which takes a different route to the outbound route of SWC 144. Apologies to the Wednesday walkers who recently did this route....
The idea is to follow the “main route” of SWC 144 from Haslemere to Thursley via Gibbet Hill. After lunch, continue along the main route to Thursley Common and explore the extension and “extension within the extension” which should -- at this time of year -- be ablaze in purple heather. Shortly after rejoining the main route at the end of the extension, it is possible to pick-up and reverse walk a shortcut back to Thursley. From Thursley, you can then pick up the route and instructions for the Book 1/Walk 27 Milford to Haslemere. You can find more information about both walks and download the walk instructions here and here.
The recommended lunch spot is the lovely community-owned Three Horseshoes (01252 703 268) in Thursley (6.5 miles/10.5 km into the walk) which serves food until 2:30pm. Please call ahead to make a booking! Post walk libations can be had at a number of hostelries in Haslemere.
Enjoy the heather!
The recommended lunch spot is the lovely community-owned Three Horseshoes (01252 703 268) in Thursley (6.5 miles/10.5 km into the walk) which serves food until 2:30pm. Please call ahead to make a booking! Post walk libations can be had at a number of hostelries in Haslemere.
Enjoy the heather!
T=swc.144
5 comments:
Is it Haslemere or Halsemere?
corrected, thanks.
It is worth pointing out that this walk is very shortcut-able, if the headline length is putting you off. The easiest short cut is not to do the loop onto Thursley Common: it is a spectacular area of heather, but we will doubtless see plenty of other heather on the walk: without this, ie just turning around and switching to Book 1 walk 27 at the Three Horseshoes, would reduce the walk to 13.4 miles by my calculation.
If you don't want a pub lunch, you could cut short the walk almost anywhere in the latter part of the morning by just crossing from one side of the Devil's Dyke valley to the other. In fact at Highcombe Farm the two routes converge.
12 at the station and one joined us soon after, so n=13 on this walk. We started in sunshine but w=over-lunch-it-clouded-up.
A brisk pace was set on the wooded climb out of Haslemere, but at the Temple of the Four Winds (site of) some normally fast walkers actually stopped and - shock horror! - sat down for a rest. This enabled some others to catch up. (We should do this more often…) On nearby Gibbet Hill we wondered whether the fine view was a comfort to criminals as they were executed (all right, only I wondered this).
Down in the Devil’s Whatsit some of us did the proper valley route and some did the short cut, thinking no one would notice. But we did notice since they rejoined the main route at the same time as we were passing. Just so they would not feel guilty, lots of the fast set walked down the road on the way into Thursley, while some of the short cutters stuck to the slightly longer proper route. So it evened out in the end, eh?
Thanks to a booking made by one walker we had a nice table in the garden of the Three Horseshoes (at least one neighbouring table was marked Reserved, but no one ever turned up to claim it). Like all too many pubs this one has gone all burgers and fish and chips (plus pizzas). However the service was cheerful and efficient and the batter round the fish was deliciously juicy. Six or seven of us ate and at least two joined us for drinks.
There was some discussion at lunch about whether to do the loop on Thursley Common, but most/all of those present did, I think. Two had a brief look at the common and then then carried on, one (me) did a smaller circuit of his own, and some did the full loop plus extension. The heather is still spectacular and extensive, but showing some sign of wear. The grey skies also muted the colours a bit. Our two resident lepidopterists saw a fair number of grayling butterflies, experts in heathland camouflage.
Having done a smaller loop, I set off alone to do the book 1 route back to Haslemere, hoping to be overhauled by the others. But they did not appear. Maybe I am getting old, but the very long climb from valley floor to the valley rim and onto the National Trust cafe seemed relentless and never-ending, the gradient barely varying. Getting to the cafe at 4.10, I found the two who had paid only a brief visit to Thursley Common, but they soon departed. I waited and two more walkers appeared, but no one else by the time the cafe closed at 5pm.
So the three of us descended by the standard route to Haslemere (quite a bit of which seemed to be uphill…), where we went separate ways - one to his car, one direct to the station. I would have been up for a drink, and tried to contact the others still walking. But I got no reply, so went straight to the station too, arriving just in time for the 18.00 train.
Captain’s log supplemental: The others appear to have got the 18.30 and had wine on the train. They were just waiting for me to disappear before they started partying, obvs…
Post a Comment