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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 13 September 2017

Wednesday Walk - Haslemere to Midhurst (via Lickfold) [New Variant]

Length: 20.9 km (13.0 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 604/718m; Net Walking Time: 5 ½ hours
Toughness:  7/10                       
                                 
Take the 10.00 Portsmouth Harbour train from Waterloo (10.25 Woking), arrives Haslemere 10.48.
From Clapham take the 09.52 stopping service (arrives H’mere 10.45).
Return to Haslemere from Midhurst either by bus number 70 (roughly hourly, £4.90 fare, last dep. 19.05) or by taxi. 
Return trains from Haslemere are on xx.02 (last at 21.02), xx.15, xx.32 (last at 21.32) and 17.37 and 19.39, journey time from 52 to 66 mins.

New variant of this established walk, bringing into play the outstanding Lickfold Inn for lunch. Thanks to Joe for the tip!

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 woods leads to the hamlet of Lickfold. 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 Lickfold Inn in Lickfold (11.0 km/6.8 mi, a la carte food to 14.30, bar food all day).
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), Garton’s Coffee House, The Wheatsheaf, The Angel Inn and The Olive & Vine.

For summary, map, height profile, some photos, walk directions and gpx/kml files click here.
T=swc.48.a

3 comments:

Thomas G said...

8 walkers and a by now familiar well-behaved dog on the platform, with the walk poster a train behind, so 9 in total, but 1 went off in her very own direction immediately, never to be seen again, so n=8.
2 walkers took a taxi from the station to a car park up on Black Down, and the laggard had caught the rest of the group at the Temple of the Winds, only to dash ahead to check his write-up for the new bit via Lickfold.
The taxi-crew had reached the Lickfold Inn first, but had patiently waited for the rest to turn up before venturing inside. Then, with some trepidation, we asked to see the menus and had a decision to make: tapas-type menu (ground floor only) or a la carte/set lunch (upstairs only). 5 went upstairs for one of the most eagerly awaited lunch experiences in SWC history.
We left after 2 1/2 hours in the Inn.
In the meantime a heavy shower had been and gone, so we experienced some mud in the arvo, but stayed w=dry-under-at-times-heavy-skies, although the tapas-type eater and the sandwichers most certainly got soaked.
Got to Midhurst 10 minutes before the next bus was due, so took the shortcut to the bus station rather than looping through town. 18.32 train.
Great day out. Great walk. Phantastic lunch. Excellent value-for-money wine. Superb company.

Anonymous said...

One walker did her own version of The Temp;e of the Winds walk and had lunch in Lurgasall .
This walk ends in Petworth. Rain and rainbows and sunshine but very nice jfk

Anonymous said...

Lickford Inn sounds fantastic, I am hungry already. Any chance of this walk being featured on one of Saturdays for those desk slaves?