Length: 21.8 km (13.4 mi) or 20.9 km (13.0 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 469/587m;
Net Walking Time: 5 ¼ hours
Toughness: 6/10
Take the 09.00 Portsmouth Harbour train from Waterloo
(09.25
Woking), arrives Haslemere 09.53.
From
Clapham J take the 08.57 Frome train and change at
Woking (09.15/09.25). 08.52 Portsmouth & Southsea train, arrives 09.50.
Return
to Haslemere Station from Midhurst by bus number
70 (roughly hourly, 26 mins journey, £5.00-ish fare, relevant buses: 16.05/17.05/18.10/19.15) or by taxi.
Return trains from Haslemere are on xx.02, xx.14, xx.30,
journey time from 50 mins.
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 bluebell-carpeted woods 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 super-duper 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.
Lunch: The Noah's Ark in
Lurgashall (10.3 km/6.4 mi, food to 14.30, booking recommended), The Lickfold Inn in Lickfold
(11.0 km/6.8 mi, a la carte food to 14.30, bar food all day, booking
essential!).
Tea:
lots of choice en-route to and in Midhurst (see the pdf
for details), recommended are 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, The Wheatsheaf, The Angel Inn, The
Olive & Vine or Fitzcane’s.
For summary, map, height profile,
some photos, walk directions and gpx/kml files click here.
T=swc.48
7 comments:
Hi all, new here and would like to join the group for the walk on the 6/11. Anyone going from London that I can pair-up with?
Jeannette
Hi all, new here and would like to join the group for the walk on the 6/11. Anyone going from London that I can pair-up with?
Jeannette
Hi Jeanette,
Most everyone on this walk will be coming from London, but we only ever meet up on the platform at the walk's start, i.e.: in Haslemere. See you there
Okay, I see. Thanks for letting me know, Thomas.
Jeannette
If you don't have a Network Card, Jeanette, look it up. May be useful to you.
earlier train needed if travelling from Clapham J, due to a train cancellation following the Salisbury accident!
There were at least two other groups assembling at the station, but - I think - we extracted all SWCers from the melee.
14 we had off the train, incl. 4 first-timers (3+1) in initially overcast weather. 1 car driver had trouble parking the car and was always behind us until she caught up at the lunch pub.
Plenty of signs of autumn about, from turned leaves and stacks of leaves on the ground to masses of mushrooms in many places. On Black Down we overtook a solo walker with the SWC walk directions in hand. We got chatting to him for amost of the way to the Temple of the Winds: one of the many serial downloaders that use our walks. He had booked a table at The Lickfold Inn though, while all of us walked via Lurgashall. The booked table there for 4 had been amended to 8 by phone, and in the end 10 of us had some meal or drink in the most lavish heated garden tent of any pub. Nice food as well, and staff fully up to the job at hand. They still exist: good pubs, competently run.
The afternoon featured plenty of sunny breaks, but mostly it was still overcast.
The picnicking 5 got the 16.05 bus, us multi-course lunchers descended into Midhurst with the sunset just starting, just in time for the 17.05 bus.
The connecting train was just missed, as it ususally is, so we went to the Steakhouse opposite (the ex-Station Inn) for a drink.
The solo walker had been on the same bus back, and reported that he was a bit disappointed by the food at the Lickfold, so maybe it's going the way of many other pubs: slowly downhill...
n=15 w=overcast-with-some-sunny-breaks
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