Sunday Walk – Dorking to Box Hill via Norbury Park

SWC Walk 64 – Dorking to Box Hill via Norbury Park & Mickleham

Length: 14½ km (9.0 miles). Toughness: 6/10

10:02 Dorking train from Waterloo (Vauxhall 10:06, Clapham Jct 10:12, etc), arriving Dorking (Main) at 10:54. Buy a return to Dorking.

Trains return from Box Hill & Westhumble at xx:10 to Waterloo, xx:16 and xx:46 to Victoria (4 minutes earlier from Dorking if you choose to finish there).

This is a fairly strenuous little walk taking in a succession of hills, each a bit bigger than the last: Norbury Park, Mickleham Downs and finally Box Hill itself. You might remember it as the ‘Box Hill Circular’ walk but because of the effects of Ash Dieback I've had to simplify its route through Norbury Park; to prevent the morning being too short it now starts from Dorking with a stretch through Denbies Vineyard.

There are two nice but fairly expensive pubs at the walk's midpoint in Mickleham, with the walk route passing the King William Ⅳ. You'll almost certainly need to book in advance if you want an inside table for a pub lunch there (or at the Running Horses by the churchyard), but there's usually space in their garden if the weather's OK. Later in the walk there's the café inside the National Trust Visitor Centre at the top of Box Hill and the Stepping Stones pub on the road to the station.

Please bring the directions from the L=swc.64 page.