18.7km (11.6 miles)
9.41 train from Victoria (9.48 Clapham Junction, 10.13 Sutton) to Holmwood, arriving 10.47 T=swc.287
The best ticket is a strange one - an “any permitted” (ie not just via Redhill) day return to Gomshall, which we will not be visiting today! The travel section of the home page for this walk explains the rationale, if you are interested. From boundary zone six with a railcard the cost is only about £3.80-odd. There are weird reasons for this which I would be happy to explain in a comment if anyone is interested. (Stop yawning at the back there!)
No walk directions: only GPX or a map, but after Leith Hill the walk follows the reasonably well waymarked Greensand Way
There are lots of woods - so hopefully plenty of autumn colour - but also several fine viewpoints, including Pitch Hill in the afternoon.
Lunch is Holmbury St Mary, where the small-ish King’s Head, the nearest pub to the Greensand Way, has now reopened. The alternative, 500 metres “inland”, is the larger Royal Oak. There is now a direct GPX route from that back onto the GSW, so it only adds about 500 metres to the walk route.
The tea stop is the Red Lion pub at the end of the walk.
To get back from Shamley Green to Guildford, you need to catch the 53/63 bus, which departs from the opposite side of the road from the Red Lion pub at 12 and 42 past the hour till 18.12, then at 18.49, 19.19, 19.49, 20.22 and 21.22. Bus fares are capped at £2 at present.
Fast trains back from Guildford are at 19 and 49 past the hour today (ie a slightly reduced service)
3 comments:
What to do when you book upper table at the pub for 1.30 and your food doesn’t show until 2.30? No chance of making it to Shamley Green in the light so we re routed ourselves to Gomshall - after all we’d followed the instructions to buy ourselves tickets to Gomshall. We were not disappointed - fantastic views, lovely woods, beautiful skies, a steaming manure heap and more than few mushrooms. What more could you ask for? We made towards Abinger Church from Holmbury St Mary - fine fungi country - where we met another SWC route, then a diagonal across to the hollow road and over towards the main SWC route towards Gomshall. We arrived as it grew dark in Gomshall where we found two other walkers who’d started out an hour later and done the orthodox Holmwood to Gomshall walk. The replacement bus service had for reasons known only to itself not bothered to stop at the railway station so long story short 8 ended up on the bus to Dorking. Thankfully the station at Dorking does not disappoint. The normally small toy railway has been expanded to a two table Christmas extravaganza but having two engineers in our party was not sufficient to find the start button. Another time then. And plenty of tea and coffee available. So we left on the 1743 to Victoria decamping as we went along. An excellent walk and new possible routes found.
I seem to recall that in some Pacific Island cultures they count one, two, three…many. I want to say “many” on this walk, but that might bust the algorithm. So I got to 30 on the platform and at least two appeared later, including one late starter I am told, so let’s say n=32. At least.
(In parenthesis: nice to see so many on a walk again after a long period of small numbers. Come more regularly, guys…)
Of course it helped that it was w=sunny. A glorious day in fact. Some cloud in the afternoon, but we will pretend we did not see that.
We streaked up Leith Hill, leaving two mycologists (fungi hunters) behind (they did a circular walk). Gorgeous autumn colours, particularly on beech and sweet chestnut: this really is a fabulous autumn walk. Up on the airy heights, the Mount Everest of the south east, we gasped for breath in the rarified air and gulped tea from the kiosk. Then on down to Holmbury St Mary.
Nine people had indicated at the start of the walk that they wanted lunch in the pub, so predictably 18 piled inside the King’s Head. We were about the only customers. Staff were friendly but food came slowly and some portion sizes were risible. “If I have the ravioli, will it just be four of them?” said one diner on our table. “No, of course not” said our server. There were in fact seven. On a plate with a silly little central bowl and a huge rim. To be fair my meat pie was a good size and very nice, but the consensus was that we will go to the Royal Oak in future. There were good reports from someone who went to the nearby cyclists cafe.
Back at the pub we watched the clock anxiously, conscious of the approaching dark. Many of us left at 2.10pm, but not one table of six, the only ones to have booked, who did not have their food yet. I think they planned to walk to Gomshall.
For the rest of us, a lovely afternoon, crossing Holmbury and Pitch Hills, with their gobsmacking views. On the descent from the latter the beech colour was particularly vibrant, but alas the light was fading now. A great clacking chorus of roosting pheasants serenaded us as we descended the last wooded slopes.
The backmarker group I was in got to the Red Lion in Shamley Green at 5.10pm, having only been in anything like darkness for the last 20 minutes or so. We saw Jupiter rising. Those who had had scanty portions at lunch eyed the menu there wistfully, but in the end I was the only one to order (a pudding). Many got the 5.42 bus, but five of us got the 6.12.
Our train from Guildford was packed with Charlton football fans returning from a 2:2 draw at Portsmouth. But, doubtless helped by a whole regiment of transport police, they were all well-behaved. One of them shared our bottle of wine.
The following report was posted by one of the diners whose food arrived late at the pub - and then mysteriously was not later on the website. So I am reposting it (unless its author would rather I did not, in which case I will remove it again...).
What to do when you book upper table at the pub for 1.30 and your food doesn’t show until 2.30? No chance of making it to Shamley Green in the light so we re routed ourselves to Gomshall - after all we’d followed the instructions to buy ourselves tickets to Gomshall. We were not disappointed - fantastic views, lovely woods, beautiful skies, a steaming manure heap and more than few mushrooms. What more could you ask for? We made towards Abinger Church from Holmbury St Mary - fine fungi country - where we met another SWC route, then a diagonal across to the hollow road and over towards the main SWC route towards Gomshall. We arrived as it grew dark in Gomshall where we found two other walkers who’d started out an hour later and done the orthodox Holmwood to Gomshall walk. The replacement bus service had for reasons known only to itself not bothered to stop at the railway station so long story short 8 ended up on the bus to Dorking. Thankfully the station at Dorking does not disappoint. The normally small toy railway has been expanded to a two table Christmas extravaganza but having two engineers in our party was not sufficient to find the start button. Another time then. And plenty of tea and coffee available. So we left on the 1743 to Victoria decamping as we went along. An excellent walk and new possible routes found.
Post a Comment