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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.

Saturday 29 June 2019

Saturday walk - Winchelsea to Hastings via Three Oaks [New walk]

Length: Full walk: 26.2km (16.3 miles). Shorter options possible of Winchelsea to Three Oaks 12.9km (8 miles) or Winchelsea to Fairlight 20km (12.4 miles) - or Three Oaks to Hastings 13.3km (8.3 miles) T=3.316

9.34 Southeastern High Speed train from St Pancras International, changing at Ashford (arrive 10.11, depart 10.24) for Winchelsea, arriving 10.50. Change as quickly as possible at Ashford, as the Winchelsea train is only two-car and can get very crowded.

Late start option: 12.37 South Eastern High Speed train from St Pancras International, changing at Ashford (arrive 13.14, depart 13.24) for Three Oaks, arrive 13.57: you need to be in the front carriage for Three Oaks. Join the main group there at lunch (they should reach the pub at around 1.45) and do the 8.3 mile afternoon and evening part of the walk.

Buy a day return to Hastings, valid for Southeastern High Speed

This is a NEW NEW NEW route, not the same as the traditional Rye or Winchelsea to Hastings walk, though it has the same finish over the cliffs as that walk, and it borrows the alternative Winchelsea to Icklesham start from it.

Otherwise it follows an interesting inland route, over gentle hills and with fine views, before turning south and approaching the high ridge that forms the Hastings cliffs from behind - very attractive territory. In all this it cannot make any huge claims to originality because for most of its length it follows first the 1066 Walk route and then the 1066 Walk Hastings Link. But it departs from the latter to climb up to Fairlight, and then follows the coastal route (with its hills and dips) into Hastings.

This walk is intended to be a map-led/GPX walk - GPX file here and map here - but there are some written directions here - notes on the route, if you like, to be used in conjunction with a map or GPX. They may, for all I know, be sufficient to complete the walk without a map or GPX, but I can't guarantee it.

The intention is that lunch should be had at the quirky Three Oaks Inn (its website says it serves food all afternoon), 8 miles into the walk, but it might be hard to resist the wonderful Queen's Head in Icklesham, which is only 3.3 miles in. If you want to do the short 8 mile walk, you could lunch here, have tea at the Three Oaks, and then get the train from the adjacent Three Oaks station, from where trains depart at 16.36, 18.36 and 20.36 for Ashford and then the High Speed. If you are set on doing this option you need only buy a day return to Three Oaks.

Otherwise, 4.3 miles further on from Three Oaks brings you to Fairlight. The Coastguards Tea Room is, as far as I know, still operating here (it was up for sale last year, but its website is still there, so cross fingers it is still open: the website says its hours are until 6pm). This is not just a nice place for tea but you can also, if you wish, get a bus from Fairlight into Hastings at 16.35, 17.35 and 18.35, thus ending the walk after 12.4 miles.

Or fortified by tea and cakes, the last four miles of the walk are the familiar coastal route into Hastings, a series of three big dips and climbs, except that the closure of the path into Ecclesbourne Glen eliminates the last dip if you follow the official diversion (as the GPX does), and the first dip can be avoided by a short cut. In the second of the dips, if anyone has the energy, a swim may be possible at Fairlight Glen, depending on the state of the path (which is officially closed, but is rebuilt each year by the naturists who use this beach).

You end in the Old Town of Hastings, which has lots of refreshment and food options.

Trains back from Hastings are at 26 past the hour (until 22.26) via Ashford, changing to the High Speed and taking 1 hour 28 minutes. Or at 18 and 50 minutes past the hour to Charing Cross until 18.50 and then 19.50, 20.50 and 21.50 (1 hour 44 minutes).

4 comments:

Walker said...

Just to point out that the forecast temperature for Winchelsea tomorrow is 27 degrees - so a good deal lower than inland

Thomas G said...

The route basically follows the 1066 Country Walk, and its Hastings Link, with a start familiar from another Winchelsea walk, followed by a new routing from Icklesham along a low ridge to the south of the Brede valley, with fine views across the marshes, some vineyards, another low ridge to the north, and - occasionally - the sea to the south. It was w=hot so progress was maybe a bit slower than it might have been in normal weather and we took nearly 3 hours to the lunch pub, which is trad but nice, with large portions.
From Three Oaks to Fairlight and the Three Glens we followed an interesting route, plenty of up and down, fine vistas (Camber and Dungeness), some nice woods but also some pretty overgrown stretches.
At Fairlight some took a right turn for an unofficial shortcut, but about half of my sub-group walked the shown route past the coastguard station. We then lost plenty people to the beach in the second glen and others to Fish & Chips or a drink in Hastings, so only a few made the 17.50 train.
15 had gotten off the posted train and at the lunch pub we met one who had arrived at Three Oaks via Hastings as he had planned, due to a late night out; plus one other who had been on the posted train from London (which was full and standing) but had failed to get on the connecting train at Ashford (which was full and standing and dozens still standing on the platform). Southern even put on a free Express Bus to Rye for the overspill people... So she took the next train to Three Oaks and met us there. N=17

Walker said...

Only three of us went to The Coastguard’s tea room in Fairlight then? Gorgeous cakes, and a nice breeze on its open veranda. We then went to Fairlight Cove, where two of us picked our way over the boulders, exposed and underwater, suffering only a few cuts and grazes, to have a delicious swim in the not too cold sea. A lovely golden walk to Hastings. Still waiting to see what train we get home.

Today’s butterfly was the Meadow Brown. I must have seen several hundred of them. Also lots of very hot sheep, some of them doubtless glad of their recent haircut.

PeteG said...

7 went swimming in the cove. We got split up choosing a pub in Hastings but eventually 8 of us reunited on the 1950 back to London.