Other Walks in Southeast England

Long Distance Walks in the Southeast of Interest to day Walkers

• South Downs Way

  The SDW is a national trail, running along the South Coast, following a ridge. Several walks (Hassocks to Lewes, Glynde to Seaford, and several Volume 2 walks) follow the SDW. There is a National Trail Guide that contains the OS map of the route.

• North Downs Way

  Not much used by volume 1. Another National Trail, it runs from Farnham to Guildford to Otford to Dover to Wye, then Canterbury or Dover. Much more varied than the SDW, with more forest. It should be possible to do much of it as day trips by train, e.g. Wye to Folkestone.

• Ridgeway

  Another National Trail, along the ridgeway (Avebury to Goring) and through the Chilterns (and the Princes Risborough to Wendover walk). The first part (the Avebury part) is used by 4 wheel drives, so the paths can be very rutted and hard to walk on in places.

• Thames Path

  The Thames Valley walks around Henley and Marlow touch on this national trail. Again, it should be possible to do much of it as day trips by train. The route starts at the Thames' source, and goes via Oxford and Reading, through central London, to the Thames barrier.

• Greensand Way

  This way runs through Surrey and Kent. It seems to have been designed to be a great walk, rather than follow a specific natural feature. As such several walks touch on it. It isn't a national trail, but it is marked on OS maps.

Other Walks

There are many "official" waymarked paths and Long Distance Paths in the southeast. They are marked on OS 1:25,000 Explorer maps with green chevrons.

• Long Distance Paths, including : Saxon Shore Way, Monarch's Way, Greensand Way.

• Regional Walks : 1066 County Path, Hangar's Way, Sussex Border Path.

• Canals : Wey Navigation, Grand Union Canal, Kennet and Avon Canal.

• Old Railway Lines : Down's Link

• Isle of Wight : has many walks, and a good bus network for point-to-point walks

Either do a web search for the individual path name, or try the list of links over at the Rambler's website.

South East England Walking Books

We're (still) not afraid of the competition, but now there is some.

The 2 Time Out Country Walking books are unique in that they contain detailed walking instructions. Some books below contain OS map extracts, but some of them don't, and as well as the book, you'll need to buy the appropriate OS map(s) for each walks as well.

There are very few walking book covering the whole of Southeast England, but there are books covering specific trails (e.g. South Downs Way) and areas (e.g. Sussex).

• There are several Ordanance Survey branded walking books covering parts of the southeast. Their USP is that they contain extracts from OS maps. The walks are circular around a car park, and so aren't public transport friendly. Many of the walks are quite short.
• There's a new edition of the Rough Guide to Walking in the Southeast, which looks good, and is linked to below.
• Cicerone have several books covering individual counties in the south east, The newer 'county' books have OS mapping, and on first sight, look pretty good. However, you'll need a car as they aren't public transport friendly. We don't recommend the older ones (they don't have a square photo on the cover) as they don't contain OS maps, and are a little out of date as well.

• Ordanance Survey branded Long Distance Path guides, e.g. South Downs Way, Ridgeway. These contain OS map extracts, and only because of that, are recommended. Very poor public transport information on how to get there by train, or get back to your car (for day walks) , and no accommodation information (for weekend/longer walks) however.

• There are several other guides for the Long Distance Path, e.g. Cicerone, Trailblazer, some of which contain sketch maps or even OS maps. It would be worth going to a book shop to compare and contrast before buying one.

• Nicholson's Canal Guides, includes OS map extracts and pubs. Recommended for the Thames and canal walks, e.g. The Grand Union Canal, the Wey Navigation (Weybridge to Guildford to Goadalming) and the Kennet and Avon (Reading to Bath)

• There are several other hard-to-find walking books covering parts of the south east ... try one of the larger Central London bookshops, or amazon.co.uk

Last Update: Feb-08 by Andrew