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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.

Wednesday 31 August 2016

Wednesday Walk - Box Hill & Westhumble Circular

At very short notice, a walk posting I had up my sleeve…SWC Walk 64 Box Hill & Westhumble Circular
                  
Length: 15.1 km (9.4 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 624m; Net Walking Time: 4 ½ hours
Toughness:  7/10                       
                                                   
Take the 10.31 Horsham train from Victoria (10.38 CJ), arrives Box Hill & Westhumble 11.21.
Off-Peak returns are only £8.90, so don’t use your Network Railcard (minimum mid-week fare: £13.00). 
Return trains are on 15.59, 16.28, 17.03, 17.33, 17.58, 18.33 etc.

I’ve led this walk for The Ramblers at the beginning of the month, and was reminded of how nice this clockwise expedition is, avoiding the steep ascent to Box Hill, yet getting in quite a bit of exercise on a relatively short outing, and the walk has not been posted yet this year.
The Mole Valley, Norbury Park, Headley Heath and Box Hill, fine views from several viewpoints, two nice pubs and plenty of choice for tea stops (café, pub or winery). Optional finish in Dorking (described in the write-up), or via Denbies Vineyard (not described but easy to find for anyone familiar with the area).You can easily extend the walk by taking a longer route through Headley Heath (map required).

Lunch is after about a third of the distance, in Mickleham, either at the recommended King William IV with its nice garden, or at the Running Horses.  
For tea, there is a café inside the National Trust Visitor Centre at the top of Box Hill, plus a Servery offering hot and cold drinks, cakes and ice-creams. There is plenty of outdoor seating and more tables inside. The NT website occasionally offers a “£1 voucher if arriving by public transport”, so you could try showing your train ticket.
At Box Hill & Westhumble station the Old Booking Hall contains Pilgrim Cycles (01306-886958), a bicycle shop with a convenient café; its posted closing time is 17.00, so you should have no problem getting there before it closes. It will also readily stay open later if called in advance.
There are pubs near the end of both walk options which are open all day: the Stepping Stones  (01306-889932) on Westhumble Street and the Lincoln Arms (01306-882820) in Dorking's Station Approach. You will find more refreshment places in and around the High Street if you go past its stations into the town centre (see the webpage for details).

For summary, map, height profile, photos, walk directions/options and gpx/kml files click here.T=swc.64

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to doing the walk tomorrow. Thanks Thomas!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Thomas.

Marc Ricketts said...

Now I might do the walk Tomorrow. But I can't Guarantee I will.

Anonymous said...

i may do the walk the conventional way doing the ascent first altho am enmeshed in another court case against neighbours from Hell so may not make it at all jfk

Anonymous said...

Box Hill Circular: Wed 31st August: About 9-10 on this outing on a hot and humid day. Plenty of woody shade, however. A good workout despite the relatively short distance. Pleasant, chatty group. One peeled off shortly before the King William IV pub to explore Denbies. The rest of us split amicably with four heading for the pub, and the others not seen again having sandwiched on the hill. Good food and efficient service in pub, especially given we were beaten to the bar by an all-male group of ramblers. The quartet stopped again at the National Trust tearoom and enjoyed some fine cake. We got the train shortly after 5 back to the smoke, managing to sample some ice cream at the bike shop cum cafe just before. Thanks to Thomas for putting on the walk, especially such an apt choice.

Anonymous said...

Just to be clear: the Denbies explorer also split amicably with the group, as is the SWC norm.

Anonymous said...

n=9 w=hot-and-humid

Anonymous said...

I had a slightly different experience of Box Hill and Mickleham and stopped for lunch at the slightly less expensive italian restaurant at the base of George !V pub. Some of this variation features in my own figure of 8 walk of Boxhill jfk