Length: HOOP Route – from 10.3 km to 26.8 km
Ascent/Descent: from 215/169m to 623m
Net Walking Time: from ca. 2 ½ hours to ca. 6 ½
hours
Toughness: 8 out of 10 (full route)
Sunset in Haslemere will be at 17.51, so there will
be light for walking until about 18.30.
Longer walks: walk to and/or from the Orbital Route along one of
the spoke routes (see the webpage for more details).
Shorter walks: walk only parts of the HOOP and take a bus
back to Haslemere or walk back along one of the spoke routes (see the webpage
for more details).
Take the 09.30 Portsmouth Harbour train from Waterloo (09.55
Woking), arrives Haslemere at 10.21.
Then take Bus 70, hourly from opposite the
station (direction Midhurst) at 10.42, arrives Kiln Meadow, Kingsley
Green 10.52. The 20-minute wait can be
bridged by frequenting either The Cabin House Coffee or
the South Downs National Park Information Centre next door. Return buses: xx.35 to 16.35, then xx.39 to 19.39. Return trains: xx.00 and xx.33.
This is an interesting circular route orbiting around Haslemere,
covering plenty of areas and sights familiar from other SWC walks, but also
lots of new ground, for example Bramshott Common, the Waggoner’s Wells ponds,
Whitmore Vale, Grayswood, Ansteadbrook and the woods west of Black Down. The
Haslemere Outer Orbital Path (HOOP) was originally conceived by Neil Hook and
was initially featured – with written directions – on a website run by him.
This no longer exists.
The route starts at a bus stop in Kingsley Green served by an hourly
service (Mon-Sat), 3 km outside of Haslemere, but additional start or finish
points can usefully be accessed either by other bus lines or on foot, along
spoke routes from Haslemere Station, using some of the existing SWC walks. For
details see below. The HOOP route is map-led, while fully written directions
exist for the spoke routes in the walk directions pdf linked above.
Walk Options: four bus lines and six fully written up spoke
routes enable you to:
- walk just parts of the HOOP,
- avoid the bus journeys at start or finish by walking from/to Haslemere
Station.
For details see the webpage and study the route map.
Lunch and Tea: The
Prince of Wales, Hammer Vale, 4.6 km into the route; The Fox &
Pelican, Grayshott, 10.3 km into the route; Café Twenty5,
Hindhead, 12.6 km into the route; The
Devil’s Punch Bowl, Hindhead, 12.8 km into the route; The National Trust Café, Hindhead, 12.8 km
into the route; The Wheatsheaf Inn, Grayswood, 16.7 km into
the route (currently closed); The Cabin
House Coffee and Harper’s Steakhouse & Bar by Haslemere
Station.
For summary, walk directions, map, height
profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here.
#2026-10-24T09:30
T=swc.377
1 comment:
There is something about leaving home in the dry, while knowing most of the rest of the day will be spent in the wet. Sorts the men from the boys, kind of...
The 9.30 out of Waterloo was busy with SE London's finest football club's supporters en route to Fratton Park, but only 1 walker alighted at H'mere who got a top notch Flat White from The Cabin next to the station to bridge the wait for the number 70 bus. At the stop waiting was an ever older gent with 2 heavy suitcases (back from the States, you see) sporting a West Ham United badge, of all things.
I started walking in very light drizzle, which continued in an on-and-off fashion until lunch while getting heavier all the time, after which it was constant rain.
Between the bracken and heather on the one hand, and the fallen leaves and tree foliage on the other it was a fantastic patchwork of yellows, greens, browns and reds (some maple trees by the Canadian War Memorial and in some private gardens) all day. Mud wasn't a problem all day, what with sandy topsoil for the first third and the end, and 'normal' forest soil not yet saturated for the middle, where steep paths were still treacherous though due to wet leaves and water on the paths, but the many water-logged depressions on bridleways all had desire paths skirting them.
Mushrooms (toadstools) and fungi (some very large outcrops on the many dead trees en route) were making for a great distraction all day, seeeing that far views were absent.
Belted galloways were out in force on Marley Common; a tree snapped and fell some 50 metres off path near Grayswood; only one other non-dog-walking-or-pram-pushing walker was encountered; The Wheatsheaf in Grayswood is indeed closed and for sale, just months after a multi-month full refurbishment; and The Fox & Pelican does not show football games but does have good WiFi. Consequently I had an extended lunch break, despite knowing that it would cost me the 17.39 bus.
By the time I scaled the road up to Black Down the rain was hard enough to come down the road as a stream and to create mini 'waterfalls' on the deeply rutted and stepped track up from the road to the plateau.
I was back at Kingsley Green bus stop just after 6, so caught the 18.39 bus and the 19.00 train.
A very fine day out, in my book.
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