Length: Length: 13.3 km (8.2 miles). Toughness: ~4/10
10:41 Dorking train from Victoria (Clapham Jct 10:48, Balham 10:53 etc ...), arriving Box Hill and Westhumble at 11:37.
If London Bridge is easier, you could instead take the 10.25 Epsom service and change at Epsom (arrive 10.53, depart 11.13 and arriving Box Hill and Westhumble at 11:37
Buy a return to Box Hill and Westhumble, or Dorking Stations (same price) if you want the option to finish there.
Return trains from Boxhill are xx:46 to Victoria (leaving Dorking Main at xx.43 and xx.17). Change at Epsom for London Bridge.
A walk in the Surrey Hills, featuring the Polesden Lacey estate. This walk was last done on a very cold and wet New Year's Day so here's a chance to enjoy it in dry and warm conditions. Today it's option b, starting and finishing at "Box Hill and Westhumble" station.
For lunch, The National Trust Granary Cafe in Polesden Lacey has plenty of inside and outside space and should be able to accommodate a group of walkers.
End of walk refreshments are available at Denbies, which has both a cafe and The Surrey Hills Brewery, or there's the The Stepping Stones pub, near Boxhill and Westhumble train station.
Please remember that these walks don't have a leader so you'll need to download your copy of the route from the L=2.14.b page.
1 comment:
Lots of people wearing walking boots/shoes and carrying rucksacks got of the train at West Humble and Box Hill Station. When most of them had cleared the platform, there were #7 of us who agreed we were there for the SWC walk – 5 regulars and 2 newer people. It was #warm-and-a-bit-humid.
The first part of the walk has some beautiful long distance views of woods, and taking an (unintentional) short cut, we also could look over a small valley to the Terrace to the south of Polesden Lacey. We lost one walker who had dropped back to take photos. But he joined us as we ate sandwiches or snacks of some sort outside the café at Polesden Lacey. We lost him again when we set off and he decided to see more of the house or estate.
One walker chose the Yew Tree Farm route option and the rest went via Polesden Farm. The field south of the farm had a large collection of cattle sitting on the track we planned to take. (And a friendly note on the gate about bulls, cows and calves.) One walker decided to turn back and take the other route (meeting up via a short-cut with the other walker and picking some fruit on the way) and the rest of us made a very wide detour round the cows and reached the gate at the far end safely and into the woods.
The woods of Ranmore Common are lovely in the spring and autumn but late summer mix of trees with different shades of green leaves, and the effect of sun and shade was beautiful.
Into the grounds of the Denbies and past the vineyards – a young couple stopped to ask if we could point out, on their Denbies produced foot-path map, where they were. We were a little embarrassed to admit, (even with our OS maps and phone apps) that we couldn’t.
All except the photographer meet again at the Denbies café for tea and most got the 16.46 back to London.
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