Extra Walk 174c – Haywards Heath to Horsted Keynes, via Little London
Length: 15 km (9.3 miles). Toughness: 5/10
10:16 Eastbourne & Littlehampton train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 10:23, East Croydon 10:33), arriving Haywards Heath at 11:01. Or take the Brighton (Thameslink) train from St Pancras at 09:50 (London Bridge 10:05), arriving ten minutes earlier at 10:51. I suggest meeting up downstairs in the booking hall, rather than hanging around on the platform.
Buy a return to Haywards Heath. A cheap Super Off-Peak fare is available on the Thameslink route, although it will restrict you to the half-hourly Thameslink trains for the return journey.
At the end of the walk you'll need to take Metrobus 270 for the 20-minute journey from Horsted Keynes to Haywards Heath, where there are frequent trains back to London. Buses are hourly at around xx:39 until 16:39, then 17:52 (last). You could also take a bus in the opposite direction to East Grinstead (later buses at 18:40 & 19:29), but the staff there might quibble at a Haywards Heath train ticket.
The Ardingly Inn features as the lunch spot on several SWC walks and after one such outing someone suggested that the Gardeners Arms would be a better choice. It's not in the best location for our walks (1½ km north of the village, on the B2028) but a splinter group were pleased with it on a Balcombe Circular walk in February and so this new Haywards Heath-Horsted Keynes walk option has been devised to go past it. You should be able to get a table in its garden but it would be advisable to call ahead if you want to eat inside.
The walk itself includes a short stretch alongside Ardingly Reservoir but elsewhere is mostly undulating countryside typical of the High Weald. In the afternoon there's a scenic trackside path where you might find a Bluebell Railway steam train chugging past; you could in fact divert to the heritage railway station and pick up the 270 bus from there, or even take a (fairly expensive) train ride to East Grinstead.
You'll need to bring the directions from the Haywards Heath to Balcombe walk page. Clicking† the word "Alt." next to Walk Options will include the directions for both of the Alternative Walk routes to Horsted Keynes, giving you the option of switching to a slightly shorter walk via the Ardingly Inn.
† Documents like this one use snippets of Javascript code for the various 'click here' features. For these to work you might have to specify https://www.walkingclub.org.uk as a 'trusted site' in your web browser, as its default security option will probably be set to not run code from other web pages. T=swc.174.c
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5 comments:
This is a nice walk with wooded areas and cheap train fare (£7.65 day return with the Network Card from Kings' X). There is an option to take Metrobus 272 from Ardingly Hapstead Hall near the lunch pub back to Haywards Heath at 13:16 and 15:16 or to Three Bridges at 12:11, 14:11, 16:11 if the heat is too unbearable. Thanks for posting this
Thanks Anonymous for the bus times above as I intend to finish the walk at lunch time.
London Bridge to Haywards Heath on the train that was servicing the Brighton Pride Massive was not a good idea but by scooting around something like n=18 of us managed to get to the start of this walk on time. I take my hat off though probably not in this weather to the fellow walker who had said that she would miss this walk as the trains would be crowded. Foolishly I didn't believe her. Ha.
We could get a calendar together that would list these annual events so that posters would be forewarned. Events like Pride, Henley Regatta and all the other annual events ( right now I can't think of any as it appens)
For most of the morning we were led by an insouciant walker - most of you will know who he is and he certainly does and thanks to him we didn't put a foot wrong though 4 stragglers managed to make a complete dogs breakfast of it and ended at Balcombe - each to their own as they say.
The walk was Hard, far more than a 5 out of 10 in this heat though insouciant guy reckons the scale now goes up to 14 out of 10 so this should be a 9.
One of the walkers commented that this must be how a rotisserie chicken feels.
Talking of chicken, lunch at The Gardeners Arms had a good selection and friendly fast service - not fine dining but good all the same.
Then another 4 or 5 miles to Horsted Keynes (during which time we lost Insoucisant as he met up with his mucker from earlier in the day) for tea, water and numerous ice creams.
Bus to Haywards Heath and a joyfully empty Thames link train to LB for a return ticket price of £7.65 after railcard discount
No complaints
Lovely walk but I must choose an easier one next week
Weather was W=HOT so thank God (and the walk poster) for the wonderful woods which even smelled delicious.
Bridie
Actually, we do have such a calendar of sorts, but I forgot about Pride. Now I think of it, I ought to put the Eastbourne and Bournemouth Air Shows on it...
I would like to thank Sean for posting this wooded walk (I reckon more than 1/2, may even be 2/3 of the walk is in the woods or some sort of shade)- very thoughful and considerate given the hot weather in addition to the option of taking a bus at lunch pub - in fact Metrobus 272 stop is right outside the pub.
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