Length: Length: 16¾ km (10.4 miles). Toughness: 5/10
10.23 Dorking train from London Waterloo (Clapham Junction 10.32) arriving at Box Hill 11.11
Buy a return to Box Hill & Westhumble or Dorking (same price). If you want the option to do one of the alternative endings (see the walk document for details), get a return to Dorking.
Return trains from Boxhill are at xx:35 to Waterloo & xx:46 to Victoria (from Dorking at xx.32 to Waterloo, xx.17 and xx.43 to Victoria
You may recognise the villages of Betchworth and Brockham from another walk, but this walk offers some novelty: the inside of a large chalk quarry (and maybe a pair of peregrine falcons), fine views across parkland towards the North Downs and there's an opportunity to visit the ruins of Betchworth Castle (detour at point 41 in the directions).
The Red Lion in Betchworth (01737-843336) has been the usual choice of past walkers. Their website says they accept walk-ins with no booking. However, just fifteen minutes further on the walk route also passes the Dolphin (01737-842288) a CAMRA pub which serves freshlt made meals (booking ahead is advised).
Not long after Betchworth, you arrive in Brockham where there are further options. You may want to pop in to the garden of The Royal Oak pub (accessible via the side without going through the pub) to see the family of meerkats. or stop at the Village Hall which houses a cafe and a Real Ale pub The Taphouse.
For end of walk refreshment, there is the Stepping Stones pub near Box Hill station
For full details and to download your copy of the directions see the L=swc.396 page. #2026-08-26T10:23
3 comments:
We're changing at Epsom from current train which will now not stop at Box Hill. 11.24 from Epsom, so not much further delay!
At the Red Lion, beer has just come back on.
A bit if a late start was we had to swap trains at Epsom, but 19 finally assembled at Westhumble station on a #sunny-and-humid day,soon joined by the delayed walk poster making #20. They included some walkers rarely seen on Wednesdays, who it was nice to see.
We got quite spread out in the morning with lots of ups and downs, different routes taken through Betchworth Quarry and some sticking to the North Downs Way. But I think nearly all regrouped either at the Red Lion or at the tables by the cricket ground outside, except for one who had taken a shortcut and another tempted by the train from Betchworth . I'm not sure how many had a pub lunch but at least one kindly benefactor shared chips.
There had been some discussion at the start of visiting the Dolphin but it was deemed too late for lunch after our 11.45 start. All the same, two of us sped on from the Red Lion to sample it and pronounced the beer and ambience excellent. Several of the group passed us as we sat outside, some heading for evening engagements. We rejoined the majority of the others for the walk to Brockham where we fractured again, with some taking tea, some going to the Taphouse, some visiting the meerkats, and one catching a bus. Two of us did none of those things and enjoyed the riverside route to the Stepping Stones, where we found some of those who had passed us at the Dolphin in the garden. I think they all got the 1735 train, but the tea/meerkat fans soon joined us, justifying another round before heading home. Another top day out.
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