Walk 6 : Liphook to Haslemere

Shulbrede Priory & its woods

Length	15km (9.3 miles), 4 hours 30 minutes. For the whole outing, including trains and meals, allow 6 hours 30 minutes.
OS Landranger Map	No.186. Liphook, map reference SU 842 309, is in Hampshire, 15km south of Farnham. Haslemere is in Surrey.
Toughness	5 out of 10.
Features	This walk can be muddy, especially the part after lunch, and has plenty of relatively mild uphill and downhill sections. It is almost entirely through full-grown mixed woods - mainly oak, beech and chestnut trees. After passing Shulbrede Priory in the middle of the woods, you come to the pub and church by the village green in Fernhurst. In the afternoon, you cross streams in the forest, before passing through Valewood Park and up into Haslemere, a town surrounded by beautiful countryside.
Shortening the Walk	There is an hourly bus service from Fernhurst (the halfway-mark lunchtime village) to Haslemere (the bus goes from the top of Hogs Hill Road in Fernhurst, along the A286).
History	Shulbrede Priory is the remains of a priory for Augustinian regular canons dating from about 1200. It was dissolved in 1536, with the King's Commissioner alleging that 26 whores were found at the priory, and it is now a private house. The prior's chamber, above a vaulted undercroft, contains sixteenth-century wall paintings. The priory is open to visitors by appointment (tel 01428 653 049) and also on the Sunday and Monday of the late May and August bank holidays (admission is about £2.50). In Tudor and Stuart times Haslemere was a centre for the iron industry. With the coming of the railway in the mid-nineteenth century it became a popular spot for literary people. The poet Tennyson's house, Aldworth, is on the slopes of Black Down where he loved to walk; and George Eliot wrote Middlemarch in Shottermill. The town has an interesting museum up the High Street, 100 metres north of the Georgian Hotel. The museum is open 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Saturday, and has a fine explanatory display of local wild flowers in the foyer. Other highlights include an Egyptian mummy showing the toes of one foot and an observation beehive.
Lunch	The suggested lunchtime stop is the Red Lion pub (tel 01428 643 112), by the village green at Fernhurst, offering quality home cooking. It serves food until 2.30pm daily. Groups of more than 20 people should phone to book.
Saturday Walkers Club	The Saturday Walkers Club do this walk each February.

Travel by Train	Out: Back:
Travel by Car	Start: Liphook Station is near : GU30 7DN [gmap] Finish: Haslemere Station is near : GU27 1DB [gmap] Return to your car by train: (park at the start) at 4pm (park at the end) at 10am
OS Explorer Map	133 : Haslemere & Petersfield [Amazon]
Revised	This walk was fully revised in : Mar-09 For the walk map, please see the Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 1
Updates	Many small changes - use the revised instructions [details]
Other Surrey Hills Walks	Farnham to Godalming, Gomshall to Guildford, Milford to Godalming, Haslemere (round walk), Milford to Haslemere, Holmwood to Gomshall, Witley to Haslemere, Ockley to Warnham, Guildford to Farnham, Guildford to Gomshall, Effingham Junction to Westhumble, Coulsdon South Circular, Haslemere to Midhurst,

Walking Instructions 

Note: Bold numbers in square brackets refer to the Walk Map above

1. [1] Coming off the London train, cross the footbridge. On leaving the Liphook Station building, turn right into the station carpark, go under the road bridge and immediately turn left up some steps. At the top, turn left and cross the railway bridge, your direction 140 degrees.
2. Follow the road for 650 metres ignoring ways off until you come to a road on the left signposted Highfield School, turn left here, your direction 50 degrees. In 20 metres [2] turn right on to a bridleway into the wood, your direction 105 degrees. Follow this path ignoring ways off, there is a single post after 100 metres with a ditch and fence to your left with a two-arm sign in 230 metres. In 40 metres after the two-arm sign the wood opens out a little and the path becomes less distinct and curves slightly left. Follow another sign straight on. In a further 40 metres, take the left-hand of two virtually parallel paths, (the right hand path is sunken), your direction 105 degrees.
3. In 280 metres, where the two paths re-unite, at a post follow the blue arrow uphill, your direction 40 degrees.
4. In 100 metres, go straight on to join broad track which has come in from behind you on your left-hand side. The track immediately curves left and crosses a cattle grid. In another 140 metres, at a three-armed footpath sign (with a metal gate away to the left), leave the Sussex Border Path to turn right onto a broad track designated the New Lipchis Way, your direction 130 degrees.
5. Go straight on along this broad track for 900m. Just before you exit the wood there is a four-armed footpath sign where the New Lipchis Way goes right but you go straight on over a cattle grid, your direction 105 degrees. In 100 metres you come to a farm-house.
6. Keep to the right of the farm buildings, cross the stile and in 50 metres as the main track turns left go straight on following the footpath sign, your direction 100 degrees.
7. In 130 metres, with good views of Marley Common on your left-hand side follow the track half-right downhill, your direction 140 degrees. Ignore another track forking right uphill.
8. In 180 metres, the path curves in a hairpin to the left. 40 metres after the bend turn sharp right on an easily missed, unmarked path, steeply downhill through a chestnut coppice, your direction initially 70 then 95 degrees.
9. In 150 metres, at the T-junction at the bottom turn left, your direction 40 degrees.
10. In 220 metres, by large beech tree with a dozen trunks and an almost hidden two-armed footpath sign follow the sign straight on, a path having joined yours from above on your left.
11. In a further 80 metres, at an easily missed two-armed sign propped against a tree leave your main path to follow the public footpath sign by forking right, your direction 80 degrees.
12. In 120 metres [3] you pass a house and garden, keeping their wooden fence on your right-hand side. Then in 20 metres, by a three-armed footpath sign, go through a wooden fieldgate and turn right, with the house fence still on your right-hand side, your direction 150 degrees. In 25 metres, go over wooden planks and through two fenced wooden fieldgates to go down a wide grassy path, your direction 95 degrees
13. In 100 metres at the bottom of the slope the path bends to the right, your direction initially 150 degrees.
14. Follow the wide grassy path through the plantation ignoring all turn-offs and, in 400 metres, you come to the edge of the plantation and a two-armed footpath sign, which you follow by turning left, your direction 70 degrees, on a car-wide earth track.
15. In 40 metres, cross a stream. In a further 70 metres, ignore a path off to the right, to continue towards Shulbrede Priory (as marked on the OS map) just visible through the trees ahead of you.
16. In 125 metres, at the tarmac road T-junction, turn left, your direction 355 degrees, passing Shulbrede Priory on your right-hand side. 50 metres beyond the white gates to the priory, turn right on a car-wide earth road, with a cottage and bird cage on your left-hand side your direction 70 degrees.
17. In 200 metres, go over a stream and follow the earth road round to the right, your direction now 140 degrees.
18. In 150 metres [4],– by the three-armed footpath sign – turn left gently uphill into Greenhill Wood (so marked on the OS map), your direction 45 degrees.
19. In 130 metres, ignore a fork off to the left (marked ‘Private’) to keep straight on, uphill.
20. In 150 metres, by a three-armed footpath sign, take the right-hand fork, your direction initially 90 and then 110 degrees.
21. Follow the main path ignoring ways off for 900 metres following footpath signs at intervals until you come to a signed path going downhill which you ignore to go straight on.
22. In a further 450 metres, bear slightly left following the footpath sign as the main track descends downhill.
23. In 180 metres, you come to a stile with a metal fieldgate to its left, then to a four-armed footpath sign. 1 metre beyond the stile, go right downhill on a path, your direction 140 degrees. (There is another path a few metres further on, should this path be excessively muddy.)
24. In 50 metres [5], you come out on to a tarmac road by Updown Cottage. Go to the right down this road, your direction due south and in 350 metres you come to an old house and garden called Thrae (on your left hand side).
25. 100 metres beyond Thrae’s entrance [6] take a foot path signed to the left across green open space, with oak trees, your direction 150 degrees.
26. In 50 metres, fork right into the woods proper and down steps across a stream and up the other side (ignoring turnoffs, and now with gardens on your right-hand side). In 450 metres go across the main road (the A286), straight over and down Hogs Hill Road, keeping to this tarmac road for 400 metres down to the Red Lion pub, which is the suggested lunchtime stop.
27. After lunch the route is relatively gently uphill for the first 2.5km, on bridleways that can be very muddy. Turn left out of the pub and left again down the side of the pub and alongside its back garden, following the footpath sign’s direction (your direction 85 degrees), in 20 metres passing Manesty Cottage on your right-hand side, and in a further 40 metres entering the woods.
28. Keep to the main path. In 115 metres, you cross a stream and in a further 30 metres you ignore a fork off to the right. In a further 105 metres, ignore two metal fieldgates and a stile off to your left.
29. In a further 225 metres [7], bend right with the main path to cross a stream where the water falls down from a storm pipe, with the stream soon on your left-hand side.
30. In 165 metres, at the next T-junction, with a wooden barn opposite, turn left, following the footpath sign, on a car-wide earth track, your direction 30 degrees.
31. In 80 metres, at a crossing of paths, by a footpath post, take the car-wide left fork uphill, your direction due north, a potentially muddy path.
32. Follow track as it winds uphill, ignoring turn-offs. 380 metres further uphill, after a crossing of paths, follow the public footpath as it bends to the right, still uphill, your direction 60 degrees.
33. In 150 metres fork left, following the footpath sign, your direction 345 degrees.
34. In 340 metres, with a ditch stream on your right-hand side, ignore a fork down to the left, to keep straight on.
35. In 150 metres, you come to a bridleway T-junction. Take the level way to the left, virtually straight on, your direction 315 degrees (the grass avenue uphill to its right is marked ‘Private’). Ignore all ways off and in 120 metres, at a major crossroads, take the fork, not straight on, but slightly to the right, signposted bridleway, your direction 350 degrees (the grass avenue uphill to its immediate right is again marked ‘Private’).
36. Keep to this path and, in 150 metres, you come to a wooden fence on your left-hand side, with a thatched converted barn beyond.
37. In 200 metres, by a two-armed footpath sign, fork left, your direction 15 degrees, down to a tarmac road 20 metres below.
38. [8] Cross straight over the tarmac road to take the signposted footpath downwards, your direction 315 degrees.
39. [!] In 120 metres, by an easy-to-miss post on your left-hand side with a yellow and green arrow, follow the yellow arrow and climb the bank by going very sharp right on a faint footpath steeply uphill, your direction due east.
40. In 100 metres, you come to a fence where you follow the footpath sign to the left, with the fence on your right-hand side. In 30 metres, go over a stile and turn right along the edge of a field, a wooden fence on your right-hand side, your direction 345 degrees. In 100 metres, go over a stile and straight on. (These horse paddocks can be very muddy – it is possible to make your way on the other side of the electric fence to point [9] replacing removable poles where you cross back.).
41. In 200 metres, at the far right corner of the field, go over a stile and follow the footpath sign on a path with fences on both sides, your direction 70 degrees.
42. [9] In 100 metres, come out through a broad opening on to a tarmac road by Wadesmarsh Farmhouse.
43. Cross over the road, slightly to the left, to continue on a bridleway, your direction 10 degrees. In 30 metres, you enter the National Trust’s Valewood Park.
44. There are good views of Black Down on your right-hand side.
45. Keep straight on for 500 metres, [10] until you come to a large and isolated oak tree with a three-armed footpath sign leaning against it, at which point you leave the main track to fork left, your direction 330 degrees.
46. In 100 metres, go through a kissing gate into the wood. Keep to the main way straight on. In 300 metres, ignore a fork to the right and, in a further 35 metres, ignore one sharply to the left. In a further 125 metres, by a three-armed footpath sign, and 40 metres before a building with many outhouses, turn right downwards on the Serpent Trail, your direction 50 degrees. Go on a series of planks over a potentially muddy zone, to veer left with the path at the bottom of the hill, and continue with the stream on your right-hand side.
47. In 75 metres, go on two planks over the stream and, in 25 metres, you come out on to a road near the entrance to Valewood Farm House [11], turn left on the road and immediately sharp right to go past Stedlands Farm on your left, your direction 40 degrees.
48. Then go past the entrance drive on your right that leads to ‘The Stables’, a large new brick house with diamond-paned windows. At a fork in the track marked with a footpath sign, take the left-most bridleway uphill, your direction 20 degrees. Then go fairly steeply uphill, ignoring turn-offs. In 500 metres, you come to a tarmac road at the top with a house called Littlecote on your left-hand side. Turn left and, in 20 metres, turn right again up a tarmac path marked ‘Neighbourhood Watch Area’, with an anti-motorbike barrier at its start, the direction 20 degrees, and soon with playing fields on your left-hand side.
49. In 350 metres, cross another tarmac road but keep straight on, down a path with steps between high hedges, to the main road, the B2131. [12] Turn left and then in 150 metres turn right into Haslemere High Street. In 40 metres, you pass the White Horse Hotel on your right-hand side. And, 100 metres beyond this, you come on your left-hand side to the suggested tea place, Darnleys tearoom.
50. Coming out of Darnleys, turn right and in 25 metres, turn right again down West Street, signposted to the police station. In 120 metres, where the main street curves to the right past the police station (which is on your right-hand side), take the street straight on to the fire station, but then not the tempting path straight on, but rather turn left in front of the fire station and take the footpath that goes down the left-hand side of the fire station signposted ‘Footpath to the station’, your direction 315 degrees.
51. Follow this path, with a stream to your right and, later, a playground to your left, till you come out on to a tarmac road with Redwood Manor opposite. Turn left and, in 40 metres, turn right on to the B2131, leading in 260 metres to Haslemere Station on your right-hand side. There is a cafe on your right-hand side just before the station and Haslemere Hotel, with its bar, is opposite the station. The London platforms (2 and 3) are over the footbridge.