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
1 comment:
A huge group of young women walkers (close to 50, I reckon) got off the train at Haslemere, as well as n=2 old geezers from the SWC. The disappointment at such a low number on a w=perfect-walking-weather day (sunny with a breeze, never too hot, fantastic far views) was balanced by the other guy being of similar pace and therefore making for a smooth walk.
Gorse and bluebells were in full bloom, with the bluebells being in fine fettle in all the many bluebell woods, on grassy slopes, in private gardens and in the long holloway down from Vining Common into the Rother Valley. Best though was the 'shallow valley' between the QE I oak and the Cowdray golf course, where the bb's covered the floor to both sides (and which the bracken will take over in a few weeks).
There also were a few fields in yellow, most of them mustard (I think) and only two near Cowdray rape oil seed.
We passed an unimpressed peacock on the path after lunch, heard a cuckoo and a woodpecker, and had an annoying encounter with the new owner of a cottage on the Blackdown estate: the public footpath runs between his garden hedge and his outer garden and he had three barking dogs steaming towards us (while still standing outside his field gate) and then refused to make any attempt to call them in or control them. Told us we could instead follow the neighbouring house's drive (which is not a right-of-way), i.e. clearly not aware of the r-o-w legislation as it applies to his own grounds! I was not having that, obviously...
Lunch at the Noah's Ark was lovely and the sandwicher joined me for a drink and after an hour in there we moved on. We got to Midhurst just after 15.30, which left ample time for a drink at The Wheatsheaf (where the final minutes of the Liverpoool derby game were playing out) and then an ice cream from Fitzcane's. 16.30 bus, 17.17 train.
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