Sunday Walk – Redhill Circular, via Bletchingley

Extra Walk 425 – Redhill Circular, via Bletchingley

Length: 20 km (12.4 miles), with shorter endings available (see below). Toughness: 4/10

10:06 Reigate train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 10:13, East Croydon 10:22), arriving Redhill at 10:40. Alternatively the 09:48 Horsham train from Blackfriars (not via London Bridge) arrives a few minutes earlier at 10:31. [If you take this Thameslink service, wait for the Southern train near the front of Platform 3 because the walk notes suggest exiting there, not via the main exit in the ticket hall.]

If you miss both of these you could get off the next train at the stop before Redhill and do the walk's alternative start from Merstham. You should connect with the main group where the two routes join at Spynes Mere.

Trains return from Redhill at xx:16 & xx:54 to Victoria and around xx:13 & xx:41 to Blackfriars. You can use Oyster or contactless at Redhill but you might find that buying a day return paper ticket is cheaper, especially with a railcard discount.

This walk's début in October was cursed with poor weather. One of the few hardy souls who turned up later confessed to being unable to recall anything about it, so this might as well be labelled a New Walk. Much of it is relatively flat as it takes in a series of lakes and nature reserves created from worked-out sand quarries, but it does include a couple of steady climbs up and over the Greensand Ridge.

For this Sunday I'm proposing the walk's longer version, via Bletchingley. I suggest skipping the Inn on the Pond (which you'll pass at around noon) and breaking for lunch an hour later in one of Bletchingley's hostelries, the Whyte Harte Hotel or the Red Lion. The village also has a tea room and there's a churchyard for picnickers. If you complete the full walk to Redhill there are several refreshment places in its pedestrianised town centre.

Shorter Endings: If you want to cut the walk short after the 10 km morning leg, two buses an hour go through Bletchingley to Redhill. On the afternoon leg you could divert to Nutfield station (after 13¼ km) for an hourly train to Redhill at xx:53, or to Earlswood (16¼ km) for an hourly train at xx:08. If you might want to do any of these options, check the walk document for the relevant train ticket and bus details.

Please bring the directions from the L=swc.425 page.