Length: 18.8 km (11.7 mi) [shorter walk possible, see
text and route map on the webpage]
Ascent/Descent:
442/378m
Net
Walking Time: ca. 4 ½ hours
Toughness:
6 out of 10
Take the 10.08 Uckfield train from London Bridge (East Cr. 10.23), arrives Edenbridge Town
10.46.
Return from Westerham is
by (TfL) bus to one of many stations, please see the webpage for details.
Buy an Edenbridge Stations return, to cover
you for most possible return routes.
I
know, this walk has already had two (weekend) outings this year, but only 2 and
3 people turned up respectively...and it sounds like a proper midweek walk: short
but with hills.
The
walk climbs out of the Eden Valley up to the Greensand Ridge for splendid
views, passes Chartwell (NT),
Churchill’s abode, and also Emmetts
Garden (also NT). In between it skirts Toy’s Hill
around its base, but later climbs Ide
Hill, one of a total of five ascents.
Lunch: The
Royal Oak
in Crockham Hill (6.4 km/3.6 mi,
food 12.00-14.30), Chartwell (NT café and self-service resto, 8.5 km/5.3
mi), Fox and Hounds in Toy’s Hill (off route uphill, 11.8
km/7.3 mi, food 12.00-15.00), Cock Inn in
Ide Hill (13.3 km/8.3 mi).
Tea: Old
Stables Café at Emmetts Garden (NT, 15.3km/9.5), several pubs and cafés
in Westerham.
For
walk directions, map, height profile, some photos, a video and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.79.a
1 comment:
6 off the train at Edenbridge Town, 1 encountered at lunch who had taken a train to Edenbridge (he walked the short version of the walk after lunch), and 2 encountered near Toy's Hill, who were on their way back from Emmetts to their car at Chartwell, so n=9. The weather was w=drizzle-to-lunch-then-thick-fog-with-the-sun-trying-to-break-through-late-on.
The weather made for a bit of a boring trudge to the lunch pub in Crockham Hill, as it's mainly field boundaries, where it's not traversing a golf course (a nice on actually, but you needed all eyes on the directions to find your way through it), so in the drizzle it wasn't great. Food and service at The Royal Oak were average to good.
Then the walk got going, as it was on to the hilly bits. With the fog we didn't get any views from the hills of course, but it was quite atmospheric in the many woods at least, which were full of interesting fungi (again: a close eye was needed on the directions here, as there's lots of paths in them woods). A well deserved tea stop at a deserted Emmetts was had, then up through more woods and past caves and a final grassy descent to Westerham, where the respective buses were due within 10 minutes.
A final drink for some in Oxted, before boarding the train home.
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