Time Out Country Walks near London Volume 2

Walk 14 : Effingham Junction to Westhumble

New Walk Options

Alternative ending to main walk (the morning of the short walk in reverse).

This alternative ending to the main walk, starting from the tea room at Polesden Lacey, is essentially the morning of the short walk route in reverse. You can use it to get to either Boxhill & Westhumble or Dorking stations, with or without having tea in Denbies Vineyard. Using this route gives a total walk length (ie from Effingham Junction) of 14.8km (9.2 miles) to Boxhill and Westhumble or 15.7km (9.7 miles) to Dorking

1. After lunch at Polesden Lacey, come out of the yard through the tower gateway. In 20 metres ignore a tarmac drive to the left to the Regional Office and Car Park, but 10 metres further on, just before the start of car parking spaces ahead, turn left through a wooden gate to emerge into open parkland.

2. Follow the path as it curves round to the left in 30 metres along the edge of this parkland, your direction ultimately due west, for 220 metres until you reach another gate, and emerge through this onto a gravel lane. Turn left onto this lane, which soon becomes tarmac, passing Garden Cottage on your left in 60 metres.

3. [*] Beyond Garden Cottage, the tarmac lane starts to go steeply downhill, passing in 140 metres under a thatched bridge (built to join two halves of the garden: the lane was apparently sunk below ground level to hide passing tradesman from the house), and in 120 metres under a modern wooden bridge.

4. 20 metres beyond this second bridge, turn left with the lane, signposted to Prospect Lodge and Polesden Farm ignoring paths that go straight on and right. (The road from this point is a private estate road, but also a permissive walkers route).

5. In 280 metres, at the bottom of the hill, curve right with the lane, passing Polesden Farm on your left. Here the tarmac lane becomes a concrete track, your direction due south.

6. 50 metres beyond Polesden Farm, where the concrete track curves right, go straight ahead through a fieldgate on a permissive footpath uphill, following a sign to Prospect Lodge and a green YHA arrow, your direction due south.

7. Beyond the gate, follow a car wide track uphill, with a wire fence to your left, for 400 metres.

8. At the top of the hill, go through another fieldgate. Your onward way is straight ahead, but take a moment to walk 30 metres to the right to the wooden benches, from where you get a fine view of Polesden Lacey house across the valley. This is also a good picnic spot.

9. Back on the track, carry on uphill from the gate for 20 metres, to a T-junction. Here turn left, on a car wide path that soon narrows and descends through the woods.

10. In 280 metres, there is an open field to your left for 120 metres, and another good view back to Polesden Lacey House. After this, the path goes back into the woods for 200 metres, before emerging onto a car wide track.

11. Go straight on here, passing the Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel on your left in 30 metres, and carrying on downhill along the car wide track, your direction east

12. In 500 metres you come to the bottom of the valley. Just before the track starts to go uphill again, there is a wooden gate to the right. Turn right through this gate, following a blue arrow on a post, onto a grassy footpath that runs along the valley bottom, your direction due east initially.

13. Curve gently left with this path, passing a tree in 100 metres, and after it following a low earth bank to your left. In 280 metres this brings you to a cluster of derelict farm buildings (Badgen Farm).

14. Go through a wooden gate to the right of these farm buildings (not the wooden fieldgate that leads into the middle of them) onto an enclosed path. In 50 metres, this brings you to a T-junction with a gravel car wide track, where you go left, your direction north.

15. In 40 metres you pass a house on your left, and in 80 metres more the track curves left to a road, where you turn right. Take care on this lane: though a quiet country road it carries quite a lot of traffic to and from Polesden Lacey.

16. In 500 metres, you come to a road junction, where you go right uphill, signposted Ranmore Common, your direction 200 degrees, passing two sets of semi-detached houses houses on your left.

17. Just beyond the second set of houses, turn left over a stile to the right of double wooden fieldgates, passing a National Trust sign for Chapel Farm Fields, your direction 110 degrees.

18. Keep to the left hand edge of this field. In 250 metres, at the far end, go straight ahead across a stile following a yellow arrow, ignoring double fieldgates to the left.

19. You are now on a narrow path with a barbed wire fence on your left and trees to the right. In 180 metres this brings you to another stile, which you cross to emerge into an open field.

20. Go slightly right across this field, heading for a wooden mini pylon 60 metres ahead at the top of the hill (NOT the large metal electricity pylon further away), your direction 120 degrees. Box Hill is now visible straight ahead, and Westhumble in the valley to the left.

21. When you get to the mini pylon, follow the line of mini pylons for another 150 metres to the far end of the field. The towered roof you can see in the middle distance ahead is that of the Denbies Wine Estate visitor centre, the recommended tea stop.

22. At the far end of the field, cross a stile [7]

23. (To go direct to Boxhill & Westhumble station without having tea, cutting 0.8km (0.5 miles) off the walk, turn left here, downhill. In 25 metres, you come to a road, where you turn left, downhill. Follow this road for 270 metres. 60 metres before you come to a red house ahead, fork right on a signposted public footpath between wire fences, your direction 60 degrees. In 180 metres, this brings you to a road, where you turn right into the village of Westhumble. Initially this road is rather narrow, and there is no pavement, but in 300 metres, just beyond a gated private road called Pilgrims Way to the right, you can pass through a gap in some white wooden fencing on the right hand side of the road (passing to the left of a 15mph sign and a child warning sign) onto a narrow tarmac path which runs parallel to the road. After 120 metres, this rejoins the road, and you carry on along a pavement to the right of the road for 80 metres to Boxhill and Westhumble Station, the entrance to which is on the far side of the railway bridge.)

24. To continue on the main route, go straight on from the stile on a path leading into woods, with a wooden fence to the right, your direction 140 degrees.

25. In 20 metres, you come to a road, where you go right, your direction 160 degrees.

26. In 120 metres, where the road turns right uphill to a house named Ashcombe, keep straight on along a car wide track. In 50 metres where the fences end either side, keep straight on into the woods, following a yellow arrow on a post.

27. In 100 metres, you come to a crossroads with a four armed footpath sign. To the left and right is the North Downs Way, but you continue straight on, crossing a stile into Denbies Wine Estate.

28. Keep straight on, with a wire fence to your right and the vineyard to your left, your direction 150 degrees.

29. In 150 metres, a four armed footpath sign in front of an electricity pylon marks a junction with a concrete track [8].

30. (To go straight to Dorking Station without having tea, cutting 0.5km (0.3 miles) off the walk distance given at the start of this chapter, go straight on here, following the line of electricity pylons. In 530 metres you come to a three armed footpath sign, where a car wide track merges from the left. Here resume the directions at point [**] in the Denbies Wine Estate tea room to Dorking Station directions below).

31. Otherwise, to continue on the main route, turn left down the concrete track towards the Denbies Wine Estate Visitor Centre, visible ahead.

32. In 350 metres, when you get to the buildings of Denbies Wine Estate, keep to the right of them, passing the Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast on your left. 100 metres further on, turn left along the front of the Visitor Centre, with its car park to your right.

33. The entrance to the centre is the arched doorway 80 metres along on the left. Once inside, turn immediately right, passing through the shop to the glass-roofed courtyard and the self service restaurant.

34. After tea, follow the instructions in the book from point [10] in the main walk instructions to get back to either Boxhill and Westhumble or Dorking stations