Length: 21.8 km (13.4 mi) or 20.9 km (13.0 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 469/587
Net Walking Time: 5 ¼ hours
Toughness: 6/10
Sunset: 16.05
Light for walking: until 16.35, with the last
stretch being through town…
Take the 09.30 S'ton Central train from
Waterloo (09.38 C'ham J), change at Woking (09.56/10.13) onto the Portsmouth Harbour train, arrives Haslemere 10.51.
Return to Haslemere
Station from Midhurst by bus number 70 (roughly hourly, 26 mins journey,
£5.00-ish fare, relevant buses: 16.05/17.05/18.10/19.15) or by taxi. Return trains from
Haslemere are on xx.28 (change Woking), journey time 88
mins.
The route leads from Haslemere station through the
town’s centre and along the waymarked Serpent Trail through a small Nature
Reserve to rise steeply out of town and back down through Camelsdale to then
rise with the Sussex Border Path through pastures and pine and heather covered
slopes up to the Black Down. Following the crest through open heathland, with
far views across West Sussex and out to Hampshire, you reach the Temple Of The
Winds viewpoint, with further panoramic views over the Rother Valley to the
South Downs escarpment and easterly across to the West Weald.
A long descent through the sloping open grounds of
Blackdown House and through bluebell-carpeted woods leads to either the classic
Sussex village of Lurgashall, with its pub and church at the corner of a
picturesque village green and cricket pitch, or to the hamlet of Lickfold with
its super-duper Inn.
The afternoon takes you through a mix of flat farmland
and wooded hills to the Cowdray Estate, with its golf course-with-views as well
as several polo fields, to the romantic ruins of Cowdray House, as captured by
JMW Turner. Climbing from the River Rother’s banks, Midhurst's Norman castle
ruins are passed en-route to the old market town's attractive centre with its
many tea options.
Lunch: The Noah's Ark in Lurgashall
(10.3 km/6.4 mi, food to 14.30, booking recommended). [The Lickfold
Inn in Lickfold is unfortunately closed for good.]
Tea: lots of choice en-route to and in Midhurst (see the pdf for details), recommended are The Halfway Hut (3 km
from the end), Cowdray
Farm Shop & Cafe (2 km from the end, open to 17.00), Garton’s Coffee House, The Wheatsheaf, The Angel Inn, The Olive & Vine or Fitzcane’s.
For summary, map, height profile,
some photos, walk directions and gpx/kml files click here.
T=swc.48
1 comment:
n=2 on this walk, a predictably low attendance, what with a forecast of 90+% precipitation risk all day AND a less frequent and longer than normal train journey.
In reality we encountered w=continuous-rain-and-sideways-at-that-on-the-tops-until-lunch-then-principally-dry weather.
Consequently, we did encounter more dog walkers than walkers, but also less mud than feared. Possibly as the mud was difficult to spot under all the standing water and the inpromptu streams running down paths and across roads?
We had a lovely and extended lunch in Lurgashall at The Noah's Ark, which gave us time to contemplate our options. And as the bus from Midhurst always misses the half past the hour train at Haslemere anyway, and today the trains were only running an hourly service, we walked back to Haslemere rather than on to Midhurst, but on a different route than outbound: staying east of Black Down, via Roundhurst and then along the Serpent Trail into town. That way we made the 17.28 with time to spare, which we would have otherwise missed.
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