Liphook to Haslemere Walk

1. [1] Coming off the London train, cross the footbridge. On leaving the Liphook Railway Station building,turn right into the station car park, 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°.
2. Follow the road for 650 metres ignoring all ways off, including the access into Churcher's College Junior School. 60m after the school entrance and 10m before the road veers right with another road joining from the left cross the road and pick up a footpath through trees on the opposite side. In 20m cross a road and continue along the footpath into woods opposite, your direction 105°. Now follow this path, through Stanley Common, ignoring ways off.
3. In 90m you come to a fork with another footpath merging from the right. Take the left fork and ignore the right fork going uphill.
4. In 120m ignore all paths merging from and going off to the left and right and continue on the path ahead.
5. In 400m you come to a post with a blue arrow pointing left. Ignore the path to the left and go straight. In 65 metres you go through a wooden kissing gate into Access Land, with a Lynchmere Society Notice board 3 metres beyond, to keep ahead on a clear path with a post and wire fence on your right, your direction 105°. In 400 metres the path starts to go uphill and diverges from the fence on its right. The wood soon thins out to light brush and heather and in 150 metres you come out onto the track (New Lipchis Way) where you turn right, your direction 140°.
6. Keep ahead on the New Lipchis Way. When a broad track joins from the left and you can see a four-armed footpath sign on your right, go straight on and in 20 metres cross over a cattle grid after which the road is surfaced, your direction 105°. In 160 metres go through a wooden field gate (or cross the stile to its right) to pass a farmhouse.
7. Keep to the right of the farm buildings, and in 30 metres go through another wooden fieldgate (or over another stile) and in 50 metres go straight on following the footpath sign downhill on a car wide earth track, your direction 100°.
8. In 130 metres, with good views of Marley Common on your left-hand side, follow the track half-right downhill, in a shallow woodland cutting, your direction 140°. Ignore another track forking right uphill.
9. In 180 metres, the track curves in a hairpin to the left. Some 65 metres after the bend, as the path levels out, at a two-armed footpath sign [!] turn right, steeply downhill along a deeply cut track and through a chestnut coppice, your direction initially 70°, then 95°.
10. In 150 metres at the T-junction at the bottom, by a three-armed footpath sign, turn left, your direction 40°.
11. In 220 metres, by a large beech tree with a dozen trunks, follow the footpath post straight on and ignore a path joining from above on your left.
12. In a further 80 metres, by a two-armed footpath sign, leave your main path to follow the sign forking right, your direction 80°.
13. [3] In 120 metres you bear left to pass a house and garden, keeping the wooden fence on your right-hand side. In 25 metres [!] leave the car-wide track and go through a wooden fieldgate on our right at a new 3-armed footpath sign with one arm pointing in the wrong direction and then immediately turn right along the house fence, your direction 150°. In 25 metres go across wodden blanks through a (usually propped open) wooden fieldgate and then immediately bear left through another gate to go down a path, your direction 95°.
14. In 100 metres, at the bottom of the slope, the path bends to the right and broadens out, your direction initially 150°.
15. Follow the wide grassy path gently downhill through the pine plantation, ignoring all turn-offs and in 400 metres, you come to a T-junction at the edge of the plantation, by a footpath sign. Here turn left, your direction 70°, on a car-wide earth track.
16. In 40 metres, at a dip in the track, cross a stream and keep ahead, gently uphill on the other side. In a further 70 metres, ignore a signposted path off to the right and continue towards Shulbrede Priory.
17. In 125 metres, having passed a renovated barn on your left, you come out to a tarmac road. Here turn left, your direction 355°, passing a pond then Shulbrede Priory on your right-hand side. 50 metres beyond the white gates to the building, by a one-armed footpath sign, turn right on a car-wide earth road, with a cottage on your left-hand side, through a woodland strip, your direction 70°.
18. In 200 metres, go over a stream and follow the earth road round to the right, your direction now 140°.
19. [4] In 150 metres, by the three-armed footpath sign, at a track junction, stay on the main track which turns left, gently uphill, into Greenhill Wood (so marked on the OS map), your direction 45°.
20. In 130 metres, as the main track swings to the left, leave it and keep straight on, uphill.
21. In 25 metres go through a wooden kissing gate to the left of a metal fieldgate, to keep ahead, steadily uphill, into woodland.
22. In 100m turn right and ignore the path on your left.
23. You are now going to follow an attractive woodland path along the contours of Greenhill Wood, mostly uphill, in a general easterly direction, following footpath signs at intervals. The path undulates, at times narrowing, at other times broadening out to a car-wide track. Keep to the main path, ignoring ways off and keep ahead at cross paths. After 800 metres you come to a cross path with signpost. Keep straight on this path ignoring all ways off.
24. In 880 metres you come to a stile with a metal fieldgate to its left and a four-armed footpath sign 1 metre beyond the stile [!]. After crossing the stile, keep ahead and in 35 metres turn right down a broad track.
25. [5] In 60 metres, you come out on to a tarmac road by garages to Updown Cottage. Keep ahead down this road, your direction due south.
26. In 480 metres the lane swings to the right and you take the footpath straight on at a three-armed footpath sign, your initial direction 160° [6].
27. In 60 metres, by a footpath post, you enter woods and head down a flight of earthen, shuttered steps to cross a stream on a 3-plank wooden bridge with wooden handrail, then up the other side on more earthen, shuttered steps, steadily uphill, soon with gardens on your right-hand side behind a series of high, close boarded fences. In 225 metres the path becomes tarmac. Keep ahead for a further 310 metes to come out onto the main road, the A286. Cross straight over and head down Hogs Hill Road, keeping to this tarmac road for 400 metres to come, on your left, to the Red Lion pub, which is the suggested lunchtime stop. Just down the road from the pub is Fernhurst Recreation Ground, an ideal spot for picnickers. Within the recreation ground is The Fern (Cafe) in the Pavilion, your alternative lunch stop option.
28. After lunch the route is relatively gently uphill for the first 2.5km, on bridleways that can be very muddy all year round. Respite from the mud can be obtained in two ways: when the bridleways are in shallow cuttings you can walk along the top of the banks on either side of the muddy paths: if you are wearing good leather boots, try walking up the streams which run down the middle of the paths after recent rain.
Turn left out of the pub and immediately left again to head down the side of the pub and alongside its back garden, following the footpath sign's direction (80°). In 20 metres pass Manesty Cottage on your right-hand side, and in a further 40 metres you enter the woods.
29. Keep to the main path. In 130 metres, you cross a stream and in a further 30 metres you ignore a fork off to the right.
30. In 70 metres the path swings to the left. In a further 130 metres the path turns to the right at a footpath sign to cross a stream where the water falls down from a storm pipe, with the stream soon on your left-hand side [7].
31. In 170 metres, at the next T-junction, with a wooden barn opposite, turn left following the footpath sign, on a car-wide earth track, uphill, your direction 30°.
32. In 80 metres, at a crossing of paths, with a three-armed footpath sign on your right, you have the option to continue the walk via the Temple of the Winds. If you choose to do so continue with the instructions below "Via Temple of the Winds". Otherwise turn left uphill here, your direction due north.
33. Follow the 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°.
34. In 150 metres, at a path junction, fork left following the footpath sign, your direction 345°.
35. In 340 metres, at the top of the incline, with a ditch stream on your right-hand side, ignore a fork down to the left, to keep straight on.
36. In 150 metres, you come to a bridleway T-junction by a three-armed footpath sign on your right. Take the level way to the left, virtually straight on, your direction 315°, ignoring the bridleway uphill and behind to your right. In 20 metres you pass a broad grassy avenue going uphill on your right. Ignore all ways off and in 120 metres, at a major crosspaths, take the fork, not straight on, but slightly to the right, a signposted bridleway, your direction 350°.(the grassy avenue uphill to your right is private).
37. Keep to this path with a mesh fence on your right and in 130 metres go over a grassy path crossing, by a three-armed footpath sign, and in a further 120 metres you come to a wooden panel fence on your left-hand side.
38. Keep ahead for 200 metres, initially on a grassy, car-wide way, which turns to earth as it ascends and swings sharply to the right. In 100 metres, by a two-armed footpath sign, fork left, your direction 15°, to drop down to a tarmac road 20 metres below.
39. [8] Cross straight over the tarmac road to take the signposted footpath downwards (a restricted byway), your direction 315°.
40. [!] In 120 metres, by a post on your left-hand side (easy to miss in summer) with a yellow and green arrow, follow the yellow arrow turn sharply to the right and climb the bank on a faint footpath, steeply uphill, your direction due east, initially going back on yourself with the path below.
41. Stay on this narrow, woodland path which bends to the left, still steeply uphill, until you come out into a field, where you turn right along the edge of the field, with a post and mesh fence on your left, your direction 345°. Keep ahead on this grassy way, in open countryside, between horse paddocks, which can be muddy in winter.
42. In some 300 metres, at the far right corner of the field and at the end of the path, turn right for 10 metres to go through a metal gate in a wooden kissing frame, to head along a narrow, enclosed footpath, your direction 90°.
43. [9] In 100 metres, come out through a broad opening on to a tarmac road by Wadesmarsh Farmhouse.
44. Cross over the road, slightly to the left, to continue on a signposted bridleway, your direction 10°. In 30 metres, you pass through a wooden swing gate to the left of a wooden fieldgate to enter the National Trust’s Valewood Park. There are good views of Black Down on your right-hand side.
45. Keep straight on for 500 metres on a grassy way in open countryside, until you come to a large and isolated oak tree with a three-armed footpath sign next to it, at which point [!] you leave the main track to fork left, your direction 330° [10].
46. In 100 metres go through a wooden swing gate into a 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 another 125 metres, and 5 metres before you have a wooden kissing gate and a wooden fieldgate ahead of you, by a three-armed footpath sign, turn right downwards on the Serpent Trail, your direction 50°. Go down earthen steps and 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 a 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 then immediately sharp right to go past Stedlands Farm on your left, your direction 40°.
48. Go past the entrance drive on your right that leads to 'The Stables', a large new brick house with diamond-paned windows. In 10 metres, at a fork in the track marked with a footpath sign, take the left-most bridleway uphill, your direction 20°. Then go fairly steeply uphill, ignoring turn-offs, in a cutting through a woodland strip. In 500 metres, you come to a tarmac road at the top with a house called Littlecote on your left-hand side, and with a recently rebuilt red brick house on your right. Turn left along the road and in 20 metres turn right up a tarmac path marked ‘Neighbourhood Watch Area’, with an anti-motorbike barrier at its start, the direction 20°, and soon with playing fields on your left-hand side.
49. In 350 metres, cross a minor tarmac road and keep straight on down a path with steps between high hedges, to the main road, the B2131. [12]. Turn left and then in 250 metres turn right into Haslemere High Street. In 40 metres, you pass the Swan Inn on your left and the White Horse Hotel on your right-hand side. 100 metres beyond this, you come to the suggested tea places, the recently refurbished Darnleys across the road to your left, and Hemingways on your right. Both serve excellent teas and cakes. Nearby, on West Street, on your way to the railway station, you come to the Real English Drinks House.
50. Coming out of Darnleys, turn right and in 25 metresturn 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; instead, turn left in front of the fire station along a tarmac lane and in about 50 metres turn right along a narrow tarmac path to continue to the left of the fire station, your direction 315°.
51. Now 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 Railway Station on your right-hand side. The London platforms (2 and 3) are over the footbridge.

Via Temple of the Winds

1. Go straight uphill.
2. In 300m cross a path at a footpath sign.
3. In 80m you have the option to avoid portentially very muddy sections of the path at the bottom of a gully by walking up onto the bank on the left of the gully. There is a path on top of the bank that parallels the path at the bottom of the gully.
4. In 80m cross a path with a private sign on the left.
5. In 10m you again have the option to walk on top of the bank on the left.
6. In 90m the path at the bottom of the gully will be impossible to walk through. Climb up onto the bank to the left of the gully.
7. In 240m you emerge next to farm buildings at a 3-armed footpath sign and the path briefly turns to tarmac. Continue straight on.
8. In 240m you reach a wooden fence with a vineyard beyond. Follow the track towards the left.
9. In 100m you reach a lane where you turn right along the lane for 10m and then turn off the lane towards the left steadily climbing uphill.
10. In 360m you reach the top of the escarpment at a wooden gate. Continue along the path more or less keeping the escarpment on your right.
11. In 230m take the right fork across roots in the path and stay as close to the escarpment as possible.
12. In 120m you reach the Temple of the Winds with its magnificent views. Leave it on the opposite site you entered it from away from the escarpment along a broad path with roots in it. Your direction 320°.
13. In 40m fork left and in 20m go straight. Continue on this wide path ignoring all ways off until in 760m you pass a bench on your right and come to a low stone pillar with a plaque on top and a bench next to it on your left. Leave the wide path here and pick up a narrow path to the left through heather.
14. Continue on this narrow path ignoring all ways off until in 420m you emerge on another broad path where you turn left.
15. In 470m cross a path at a 4-armed footpath sign and go straight through a wooden gate.
16. In 70m fork right.
17. In 560m go through a wooden gate and continue along the path with a wiremesh fence on your left.
18. In 260m the path turns left.
19. In 80m exit the wood through a wooden gate at a 3-armed footpath sign and cross the meadow ahead of you along a visible path.
20. In 350m go through a field gate and turn left downhill. Stay close to the line of trees on your left.
21. In 220m at a T-junction turn left through a wooden gate.
22. In 40m turn right and walk onto a lane which you follow.
23. In 300m, facing the front door of an old house beyond a 3-way tarmac intersection with a tree growing out of a "traffic island" turn right uphill onto a concrete driveway. The original route joins here from the woods on your left.
24. In 70m fork left uphill at a 2-armed footpath sign.
25. In 500m turn left along a lane and after 30m right onto a footpath at a footpath sign.
26. In 300m cross a road.
27. In 100m, 50m before the main road in front of you, turn left through property fences.
28. In 60m turn right downhill along the road (Museum Hill).
29. In 100m turn left along the main road for 10m and then cross it to pick up a driveway opposite.
30. In 250m turn left through a wooden gate and cross the meadow valley.
31. In 140m at an information board go through a gate and turn right along the fence on your right.
32. In 100m turn left towards red brick houses.
33. In 70m turn left along the main road. You will soon reach Hemingways on your left with Darneys opposite. From here pick up the instructions in the main section at [].