Sunday Walk - Haslemere to Midhurst via Lurgashall or Lickfold (bluebells, hills, heathland, far views)

Length: 21.7 km (13.5 mi) or 20.8 km (13.0 mi) 

Ascent/Descent: 469/587 

Net Walking Time: 5 ¼ hours 

Toughness: 6/10

Take the 09.30 Petersfield train from Waterloo (09.40 Clapham J, 10.02 Woking, 10.18 Godalming), arrives Haslemere 10.29. 

Return to Haslemere Station from Midhurst by Bus Line 70 (16.30, 18.40) or by taxi. 

Return trains from Haslemere are on xx.17 and xx.42.

 

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 woods carpeted in bluebells in season, 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 renowned Three Horseshoes 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. 

 

Walk Options: 

A variant of the middle of the route, south of Black Down, enables a lunch stop at The Three Horseshoes Inn (cut 900m).  

In Midhurst, go straight to the Bus Station from the Rother crossing, instead of going up through the town (cut 700m).

 

Lunch: The Noah's Ark in Lurgashall (10.3 km/6.4 mi, food to 14.30, a table has been booked for 12.45). Or The Three Horseshoes Inn in Lickfold (11.0 km/6.8 mi, food to 16.00, booking recommended). 

Tea: 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 (open to 16.00), The Wheatsheaf or Fitzcane’s (open to 16.30).

And, if there’s time between bus and train in Haslemere, Harper’s Steakhouse (and pub bar).

 

For summary, map, height profile, some photos, walk directions and gpx/kml files click here. t=swc.48