Laindon Circular walk

Essex Hills, wooded Nature Reserves and panoramic Thames Valley Views

View from One Tree Hill towards Canvey Island SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular
View from One Tree Hill towards Canvey Island

SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular

Oct-15 • thomasgrabow on Flickr

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Marks Hill Nature Reserve, Path (I) SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular
Marks Hill Nature Reserve, Path (I)

SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular

Oct-15 • thomasgrabow on Flickr

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But Why? Tree in Westley Heights Park SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular
But Why? Tree in Westley Heights Park

SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular

Oct-15 • thomasgrabow on Flickr

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Woolmarket, Horndon-on-the-Hill SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular
Woolmarket, Horndon-on-the-Hill

SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular

Oct-15 • thomasgrabow on Flickr

walkicon swcwalks swcwalk114 22329541492

Undulating Field and Lincewood SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular
Undulating Field and Lincewood

SWC Walk 114 Laindon Circular

Oct-15 • thomasgrabow on Flickr

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"Welcome to Essex" Laindon Circular
"Welcome to Essex"

Laindon Circular

Apr-11 • moontiger on Flickr

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Yellow fields Laindon Circular Oilseed rape.
Yellow fields

Laindon Circular Oilseed rape.

Apr-11 • moontiger on Flickr

essex book3 newwalk swcwalks walk114 5648963356

Length

20.9 km (13.0 mi), with 336m ascent/descent. For a shorter walk see below Walk Options.

Toughness

5 out of 10, with 4 hours 45 minutes walking time. For the whole outing, including trains, sights and meals, allow at least 7 hours.

Walk Notes

This is an energetic and varied figure-of-eight walk through some tranquil, hilly parts of Essex, mostly through woods, both ancient and modern, and through flower-rich meadows and some farmland, which are all parts of Langdon Hills Country Park and the neighbouring Langdon Nature Reserve (which itself consists of five separate reserves). The hills form a crescent shaped ridge running West-to-East, giving panoramic views over the Thames Estuary from many points: out to Canvey Island and Fobbing Marshes in the East, across to Kent and to London’s Skyline in the West.
The lunch destination Horndon-on-the-Hill is a conservation area and features several noteworthy buildings as well as a multi-award winning pub. On the return you walk through more beautiful, undulating woods and then through the Dunton Plotlands part of the Nature Reserve, an interesting area formerly full of bungalows and chalets for Londoners, now with a brand-new large visitor centre and café.
This walk contains some arable field crossings around lunch (about 1000m in total), where it is also afflicted by some road noise from the nearby A13 for a while.

Walk Options

A couple of shortcuts cut out 2.4 km (1.5 mi) and 2.6 km (1.6 mi) respectively.
Cutting out the outer loop to Horndon-on-the-Hill reduces the walk by 5.5 km.
Bus Line 11 (Mon-Fri) takes you from Horndon-on-the-Hill to Purfleet or Basildon stations (every 2 hours).

Maps

OS Explorer: 175 (Southend-on-Sea & Basildon)
OS Landranger: 177 (East London)

Travel

Laindon Station, map reference TQ 680 881, is 39 km east of Charing X, 44m above sea level and in Essex. It station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness in eastern Essex, with four trains an hour Mon-Sat and two on Sundays, journey time is between 30 and 34 minutes. All trains stop at one or more of the following DLR, Overground or Underground Stations: Limehouse, West Ham, Barking, Upminster.

Saturday Walkers' Club: Take the train nearest to 09.30 hours.

Lunch

The Bell Inn High Road, Horndon-on-the-Hill, SS17 8LD. Located 10.4 km from the start of the walk. The Bell is featured in all the 'serious' guides and has won numerous industry awards. Consequently, the restaurant area is often fully booked well in advance. The bar area operates on a first-come-first-serve basis though, but serves a different menu.
The Swan 121 High Road, Horndon-on-the-Hill, SS17 8LD. Located 10.4 km from the start of the walk and now a freehouse.

Tea

Langdon Visitor Centre Dunton Plotlands, Lower Dunton Road, Basildon, SS16 6EB. Langdon Visitor Centre is located 3.1 km from the end of the full walk. After a complete rebuild, the new centre has opened in summer 2021.

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By Train

Out (not a train station)

Back (not a train station)

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Start SS15 6AB Map Directions

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Help

National Rail: 03457 48 49 50 • Traveline (bus times): 0871 200 22 33 (12p/min) • TFL (London) : 0343 222 1234

Version

Apr-21 Thomas G

Copyright © Saturday Walkers Club. All Rights Reserved. No commercial use. No copying. No derivatives. Free with attribution for one time non-commercial use only. www.walkingclub.org.uk/site/license.shtml

Walk Directions

Full directions for this walk are in a PDF file (link above) which you can print, or download on to a Kindle, tablet, or smartphone.

This is just the introduction. This walk's detailed directions are in a PDF available from wwww.walkingclub.org.uk