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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 19 June 2021

Saturday Walk - Guildford to Horsley

Guildford to Horsley (shortcut through the woods) T=swc.131

Length: 20.4km (12.7 miles) with option c shortcut through the woods.
4 out of 10 – a couple of extended hill climbs
"There are numerous fine viewpoints looking southwards from the North Downs escarpment, but less well known are the views to the north, where London can be seen in the far distance. This walk takes in both, starting with a climb over Chantries Hill and then carrying on to St Martha’s Church, perched high on the downs, You then descend to the village of Albury for lunch.
From Albury, there is a steady climb up to Newland’s Corner, another popular viewpoint, before a wooded stretch along the North Downs Way. To finish, the walk descends through beautiful upland country to the north of the ridge, with views right to the distant City of London on clear days."

Covid-19 This is an informal walk for up to 30 people. Please register on Eventbrite here (no obligation to attend).

Trains: Get the 1000 Portsmouth Harbour from Waterloo (Woking 1025) train arriving 1032. Buy return to Guildford. Frequent return trains from Horsley.
Lunch: The efficient Drummond at Albury (01483 202 039) 9.1km (5.6 miles) into the walk. For a picnic, carry on past the pub, taking in a building with dramatic chimneys, to a small recreation area on the left side of the road.
Tea: The only pub stop near the end of the walk is The Barley Mow pub in West Horsley, 1.6km (1 mile) before Horsley station. It has a garden and does tea in pots and coffee. Quaich (01483 285181) "is a pleasant coffee shop in Station Parade near Horsley station, which has sofas, a nice range of cakes"






1 comment:

Walker said...

I was not counting, but approximately n=20 on this walk on an w=warm-but-overcast day. Lots of people seemed to be doing lots of different variants on the route (or possibly just not paying particular attention to the walk directions or GPX), but some of us at least did the specified option C shortcut through the woods, and three of us had lunch in the Drummond at Albury pub. The mild consternation show by the staff at our unbooked arrival in this establishment melted away when we said we would sit in the garden, where we had a very nice table right by the river. Two others joined us for drinks a bit later.

After lunch, two of us found the temptations of the tea kiosk at Newlands Corner too tempting, but the other three did not and went on. I later wished I had waited till the car park in the woods which often has a tea van: it did today, and I felt a bit guilty not stopping to do business there.

There has been some work on section through the woods after Newlands Corner and it is now rather more open than it was before, which is rather pleasing: there was an abundant of flowers on this section, especially hedge woundwort. My ability to enjoy this was somewhat limited by my efforts to keep up with my fast walking companion: I eventually failed in this endeavour and for the rest of the day walked alone (bar one occasion when he came up behind me, having missed the way, but soon outstripped me again).

The lovely downland reserve of Sheepleas had nice flowers, but sadly no butterflies due to the weather. The distant views of the City of London were just about visible despite the murk. Once down on the flat I wandered the luxuriant grassland. I looked in at the Barley Mow pub but could see no walkers there, so carried on to Horsley, where the (now unnamed) Quaich cafe still seems to be in business, though had closed by the time I got there. So my end of walk refreshments were a coffee from the Costa machine in Budgens and a chocolate flapjack, which I consumed on the 17.48 train. The rest of the group were probably home and in their baths by then.