Hever to Ashurst
Length: Main Walk: 16¼ km (10.1 miles).
Short Walk 1, starting from Cowden: 12½ km (7.8 miles).
Short Walk 2, finishing at Cowden: 11½ km (7.1 miles).
Difficulty: 4 out of 10 for the main walk, 2 and 3 out of 10 for the shorter options.
Trains: Take the 9.51 East Grinstead train from London Victoria (CJ 9:57, East Croydon 10:09) Change at Hurst Green 10:37 to catch the 10:41 Uckfield train to Hever, arriving 10:53.
If you plan to start the walk in Cowden, it is one stop beyond Hever. A later train could be taken.
Return trains from Ashurst are at xx:00 every hour, journey time 1 hour 11 minutes to London Victoria, changing at Hurst Green.
Buy a return ticket to Ashurst (or Cowden if you are finishing there).
This walk takes in a quiet part of the High Weald on the border of Kent and East Sussex. The route passes several attractive old manor houses. This is a surprisingly remote area of low hills and wooded valleys.
Lunch: The only pub on the
walk route is The Fountain (01342-850528) in Cowden village,
7¾ km from Hever (4 km from Cowden station). This is an attractive
village pub with a new conservatory and a secluded beer garden. It serves good
home-made food up to 2.30pm (later on Sundays).
Tea: There are few refreshment places in this remote countryside, but the routes to Ashurst pass the Perryhill Orchard Farm Shop & Tea Rooms (01892-770595) in mid-afternoon. The Farm Shop is open daily to 5pm and sells a tempting range of local ciders (which you can taste beforehand); the tearoom closes at 4.30pm. Allow at least an hour to reach Ashurst station, 4 km away. from the station. There are no refreshment options after this.
For walk directions, map and GPS click here
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2 comments:
N=5 set off from Hever in w=warm-cloudy-conditions-giving-way-to-sunny-spells-and-one-heavy-shower near the end of the walk. Paths were overgrown in places but luckily one of our number had brought secateurs and cut back some of the thorny brambles. We walked through several fields of long grass and it was so peaceful that grasshoppers could be heard chirruping in some of them. A bit of confusion on the golf course. The path leading off it through the woods was not visible and only the intrepid Mr T found it. We had sandwiches in the churchyard in Cowden before visiting the Fountain for a drink. Their garden was pleasant and their chips were very good. One person took the train from Cowden, the other four continued with the main walk and collaborated in finding the way. Paths were not obvious in many of the fields. It's not a well trodden route and might benefit from more frequent posting. There were some lovely views and We passed several manor houses. We didn't stop at Perryhill tea shop but decided to aim for the 5pm train which we caught by the skin of our teeth. Our connecting train from Hurst Green was cancelled. We spent half an hour in Oxted, two in th pub and two in search of tea and cake. The coffee shops had all shut but there was a burger place that also had ice cream including vegan options. They also did tea and coffee so may be a useful tea stop on future walks ending in Oxted. It's near Costa on the High Street. A very pleasant leisurely day.
Just to add....
If the Olympic Committee ever decide to introduce a Stile-crossing event, I know just the place for it. There are hundreds of the little devils on this walk. Big ones, small ones, high-step ones, two-close-together ones. Even the much-feared fertiliser-bag-over-barbed-wire-with-shaky-step. Just to make things more interesting, every so often someone's actually put a kissing gate. Not enough to make the route easier but enough to keep you guessing. All that pirouette training with the Royal Ballet really paid off today. If team GB were to pick me I'm sure I would bag a bronze at least.
I'm still crying inside that we didn't visit the Perryhill Orchard Cider-tasting Emporium in the afternoon. But, lets face it, I couldn’t have lugged more than a gallon over the remaining stiles anyway. And the others didn’t look like they were about to help.
Near the end we did indeed get caught in a downpour. As I was hurrying for the train (by hurrying, I mean ambling less slowly), I didn’t stop to put a waterproof on. This turned out to be lucky. During the enforced stop in Oxted (which required a visit to the Oxted Inn), I accidentally entered myself into their Wet T shirt competition and won a pint of cider.
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