Walk 40 : East Grinstead Circular

15.1 km (9.4 miles)

Landranger 187, Explorer 135

4 out of 10.

Like many towns in the Weald, ancient East Grinstead perched upon a high hilltop. The old town is still there, though now surrounded by a modern development sprawl, and this walk takes you from its heart down a quiet lane and out into classic Wealden territory of woods and hills and open fields. The morning is mainly downhill, with a visit to the dam of the Weir Wood Reservoir and a ruined manor house en route, with lunch in the valley bottom town of Forest Row. After lunch, the walk climbs relatively gently up into a lovely area of high fields and farms, with good views in various directions, before crossing a valley again for the final ascent into East Grinstead.

Alternative afternoon route: This longer option (8.1 miles/13km v 5.6 miles/9km for the standard afternoon route) takes you on a circuit right around Weir Wood Reservoir. Although the path only once gets close to the water's edge (the surrounds of the lake being fenced off), you get numerous beautiful views of it below, and this is glorious territory, with lots of hilly pasture and panoramic views. After this, the walk climbs to the interesting Stone Farm Rocks, with the best view yet of the reservoir. Here it links up with the route of the Time Out Country Walks book one Balcombe to East Grinstead Walk and you can follow this to the station, if you know it: but a somewhat different route into East Grinstead is offered here, taking in the National Trust property at Standen and some nice bluebell woods en route, and bringing you back to the historic High Street for tea. *** Note that here is one potential drawback of this route, which might bother some walkers: between the early section and Stone Farm Rocks, there is an unavoidable 2km (1.3 mile) section of this route on a road which, while not exactly busy, does have some quite fast moving traffic: some care is needed here.

There are two possible options: see pdf for details

To be written.

Take the train nearest to 10.20am (before or after) from Victoria.