Petersfield to Rowlands Castle walk

An easy southerly trek through East Hampshire.

History

This is a list of previous times this walk has been done by the club (since Jan 2010). For more recent events (since April 2015), full details are shown.

Date Option Post # Weather
Sat, 08-Jul-23 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle 12 In the afternoon the sun came out
Sun, 14-Aug-22 Sunday Walk - Westerly South Downs: Petersfield to Rowlands Castle 1 sunny and hot with gentle breeze
Sat, 24-Jul-21 Saturday walk - Petersfield to Rowlands Castle - Summertime, and the living is easy... 16 we walked south into sunshine
Sat, 25-May-19 Saturday walk - Petersfield to Rowlands Castle - Varied scenery in the western South Downs 17 sunny
Wed, 30-Jan-19 Wednesday Walk - Petersfield – Rowlands Castle 14 sunny
Wed, 29-Mar-17 Wednesday Walk - Petersfield to Rowlands Castle 16 drizzle turning to rain until lunch then dry with some drizzle
Sun, 16-Aug-15 The Western South Downs 6
Sun, 12-Oct-14 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle 11
Sat, 25-Aug-12 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Wed, 08-Aug-12 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sat, 11-Jun-11 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Wed, 16-Sep-09 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sat, 21-Feb-09 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sun, 31-Aug-08 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sat, 05-Jan-08 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sat, 11-Aug-07 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sat, 30-Jun-07 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Wed, 02-May-07 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sat, 03-Feb-07 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Sat, 08-Jul-23 : Petersfield to Rowlands Castle 12
Walker
Walker
Length: 16km (9.9 miles) T=swc.18
9.45 train from Waterloo (9.52 Clapham Junction) to Petersfield, arriving 11.11
Buy a day return to Rowlands Castle
This always makes a lovely summer walk. After a flat start across fields, you are technically in the South Downs, but this is not so much classic downland scenery as undulating hills, fields, woods, and some nice distant views - a pleasant mix of scenery. It is usually good for wildflowers and butterflies.
For lunch, the Five Bells in Buriton has a charming garden, but usually considered too early in the walk at just 2.5 miles. It starts serving food at midday. The option more usually preferred by walkers is the Red Lion in Chalton, 6 miles in, which conveniently serves food all afternoon and has plenty of outdoor seating. At the end of the walk Rowlands Castle has several pubs

Trains back from Rowlands Castle are at 29 past the hour to 19.29, then 20.45, 21.45 and 22.46. All these trains call at Milford after 52 minutes: so eg the 18.29 from Rowlands Castle gets to Milford at 19.21
  • 01-Jul-23

    What about to Portsmouth or Fishbourne?

  • 04-Jul-23

    Good ideas, Marc, but I had a specific request for a walk in this area (though as you can see I have chosen one slightly further away, since with only one train running an hour it doesn't make much difference)

  • 09-Jul-23

    Nine off the train (crowded, but not terminally so) at Petersfield, to be met by a downpour. We huddled by the ticket barriers and waited for it to pass, and were met there by two who had come by car, one of whom got soaked walking from car park to station.

    Then the rain stopped and off we set under sticky cloud. What a novelty to walk through damp countryside for a change. (Those who had come in sandals had to make kit adjustments…). There was far more birdsong than there ought to be for the time of year and as the weather slowly brightened, increasing amounts of butterflies.

    We whizzed through Buriton. Up on the downs yours truly took a wrong turn. I walked a mile along a private driveway to get back on the footpath. Don’t tell anyone.

    The Red Lion in Chalton seemed cruelly empty compared to former visits - the weather? the cost of living crisis? They were super friendly and super efficient. All pubs should be this way. We sat in the garden and were rewarded with a slight shower. But this was the only other rain of the day. Walker number 12 joined us here, having just missed the train at Waterloo and caught the one an hour later. She reached the pub not long after we did: a sterling effort.

    In the afternoon the sun came out - for a time, anyway. There were big golden fields of ripe barley, some fine views and even more butterflies. We meandered along, stopping to look at this and that. As we approached Rowlands Castle the skies got more threatening, but after a drink in the dog-filled pub by the station we got the 18.29 train just before more rain arrived.

Length: 17.4 km (10.8 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 308/335 m
Net Walking Time: ca. 4 hours
Toughness: 3 out of 10
Take the 09.30 Portsmouth Harbour train from Waterloo (Clapham J 09.39, Woking 10.04), arrives Petersfield 10.45. Return trains: xx.13 (91 mins). Buy a Rowlands Castle return.
An undulating ramble through the little-known western reaches of the South Downs. Though there are a couple of steep climbs, the overall gradients are not too arduous, and your reward is some fine hilltop views in the second half of the walk.
Lunch: The Red Lion in Chalton (10.5 km/6.5 mi, food all day).
Tea: For details of the tea shop and the three pubs in Rowlands Castle check the walk directions pdf.
For walk directions, map, height profile and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.18
  • 15-Aug-22

    1 sunny and hot with gentle breeze

10.00 train from Waterloo to Petersfield, arriving 11.04
From Clapham Junction get the 9.57 to Salisbury and change at Woking (arrive 10.15, depart 10.25)
Buy a day return to Rowlands Castle

For walk directions click here, for GPX click here, for a map of the route click here.
There is a certain degree of uncertainty about the weekend weather as I write this post. Maybe we will be dodging lightning and downpours... But in the event that the weather gods decide to be kind, this is the perfect summer walk, a pleasant little stroll through interesting and not massively strenuous scenery, which is worth taking at a dozy pace. Hell, you might even sit down on the hillside at some point and enjoy the view.
If the weather is bad on the other hand, it is not a particularly exposed walk as far as I can recall. But other opinions may be available and you should consult your own Independent Weather Advisor before attending.
Last time we did this walk there was one point early on when there was a locked gate on a housing estate that should not have been locked. Hopefully this has been resolved, as a public right of way is a public right of way.
There are two lunch pubs on this walk. The Red Lion in Chalton, six miles into the walk, is a capacious chain pub with a big garden and serves food all afternoon, so in many ways is the better choice. But the Five Bells in Buriton just 2.4 miles in is very charming and olde-worlde, though its website says it is currently only doing evening takeaways (maybe they have just not updated their website?).
If the Five Bells is open and you lunch there, the Red Lion makes a super mid afternoon tea stop. Otherwise pretty Rowlands Castle has several pubs, if you can resist the urge to rush for the next train which in my experience almost no one ever can....
Trains back from Rowlands Castle are at 45 past the hour
T=swc.18
  • 24-Jul-21

    Thunderstorms! Torrential rain! Flash floods! Severe weather warnings! Given the strenuous efforts of the BBC weather forecasters to put us all off, it is a credit to the fortitude of SWC walkers that 16 turned up on this walk. One of them was a newbie, which is a credit to the fortitude of newbies.

    We started in a very humid and sticky drizzle, but it soon stopped and by lunch time there were some bright patches. After lunch we walked south into sunshine and so it remained for the rest of the day.

    There seemed general agreement we would lunch at the Red Lion in Chalton (I am not sure, indeed, that the Buriton pub was open.) They had a wedding on at 3pm, but were not vastly busy at 1.30pm when we rocked up. We could order drinks at the bar and food at a nearby till. Oh the heady pleasure of this! I felt giddy as a child.

    Perhaps it was the sunshine, but the afternoon of this walk seemed particularly pretty. There were hazy views of the distant sea, fields full of small white butterflies, and an impressive selection of arable weeds. At one point my attention was held for over a quarter of an hour by a gorgeous patch of spear thistle that was dotted with bees, hoverflies and butterflies of various species: the very quintessence of summer. Towards Rowlands Castle the wheat fields were golden and there were some lovely little downland sections. About a mile from the end in Ferndean there was a country pub with a sun-drenched garden which unaccountably no SWC-ers had stopped in.

    I got to the Castle Inn in Rowlands Castle to find that much of the group had - there is no nice way to say this - got the 4.45pm train. On such a sunny afternoon!! Five others were still left, and we had tea and drinks in its garden and got the 5.45pm. Still too early….

Length: 16km (9.9 miles) T=3.18
Toughness: 3 out of 10

10.00 train from Waterloo to Petersfield, arriving 11.02

From Clapham Junction get the 9.57 Exeter train to Woking, arriving 10.15, to connect to the above train at 10.25

Buy a day return to Rowlands Castle

For walk directions click here. For GPX click here. For a map of the route click here.

Beloved of the midweek walkers, it is nevertheless an astonishing seven years since this walk had a Saturday outing and five years since it was aired on a Sunday. And with all the gung-ho, dash-ahead SWC walkers away on their Scotland trip, we can enjoy this pleasant outing at a moderate pace, stopping now and again to enjoy the most flowery phase of spring.

Particularly recommended in this regard is the very nice Five Bells pub in Buriton. It is only 2.5 miles into the walk (a relatively flat section over meadowy fields) and so perhaps a bit early to stop at. But it is a pretty village and if you eat here you are refuelled for the climb up onto the South Downs escarpment, which is one of the main tests of your leg muscles today.

Otherwise it is a further 3.4 miles to the Red Lion at Chalton (which is thus 5.9 miles into the walk), also a very pleasant pub with a nice garden. It serves food all afternoon, so getting there a bit later might be an advantage. If you have lunched in Buriton it makes a nice mid-afternoon tea stop.

On this last two thirds of the walk you are on the South Downs, but it is not quite the South Downs one is familiar with further west - more like a Wealden mix of hills and woods and open fields with views of the valley. At the end, Rowlands Castle is a cute village with several pubs, which is worth a wander round.

Trains back from Rowlands Castle are at 46 past the hour until 22.46.



  • 25-May-19

    17 on this walk on a day that was basically sunny , give or take a bit of cloud. Worse weather has been walked in at worse times of year.

    An early excitement (for me at least) was seeing a flock of swifts screaming over Petersfield. Further excitement came after passing though a new housing estate on the edge of the town when we found a gate the path passed through locked shut with a sturdy cable. A nearby workman opined that the path “should have been re-opened by now” and lent us a Stanley knife with which to cut the cable. We decided instead to pioneer a route through the shrubbery which circumvented the gate.

    After a walk through flowery meadows we came to pretty Buriton, where there was some debate about whether to lunch there or push on to Chalton. About half opted for Buriton, where the Five Bells has a very pretty garden, where we sat in the sun or not according to taste. The food was hearty rather than particularly inspired, but certainly filled a hole. We were almost the only diners.

    After lunch all was very dreamy and nice, and after crossing the railway line some of us sat on the downs and watched the occasional common blue and small heath butterfly flitting about. We then joined the Chalton lunchers for tea in the terraced garden of the Red Lion.

    On through waving fields of barley and along fine open ridges, and past a surprising field of (surely planted?) tansy-leaved phacelia (a striking purple flower), which was swarming with bees.

    Bringing up the rear yours truly then got to Rowlands Castle, anticipating a convivial drink at the Castle Inn, only to find the rest of the party gathering themselves to get the 5.46 train. So I sit here alone, dear reader, with my half of cider, and pen these lines.

Thomas G
Length: 17.4 km (10.8 mi), Ascent/Descent: 327/355 m
Net Walking Time: ca. 4 hours, Toughness: 4 out of 10
Take the 10.00 Portsmouth Harbour train from Waterloo (Woking 10.25, G’ford 10.34), arrives Petersfield 11.00. From Clapham take the 09.52 stopping service to Portsmouth & Southsea and change at Woking (10.12/10.25).
Return trains: xx.46 (from 87 mins). Buy a Rowlands Castle return.
An undulating ramble through the little-known western reaches of the South Downs. Though there are a couple of steep climbs, the overall gradients are not too arduous, and your reward is some fine hilltop views in the second half of the walk.
Lunch: The Five Bells in Buriton (4.2 km/2.6 mi, food to 14.00) or The Red Lion in Chalton (10.5 km/6.5 mi, food all day; sign up online for a 20% off food voucher!).
Tea: For details of the tea shop and the three pubs in Rowlands Castle check the walk directions pdf.
For walk directions, map, height profile and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.18
  • 30-Jan-19

    Quite. A. Brilliant. Winter. Day. Especially for Country Walking...

    Bright blue skies all day, frosted ground in the shaded areas, hardly any mud, clear air, far views, hardly a breeze, but - sadly - only tiny tiny specks of snow away to the side, in very few places, and never on the paths. It felt warm, it felt like spring, and we were walking into the sun all day, and into the views for the latter 2/3 of the route, after having climbed up the first of several downs, with a real top-of-the-world feeling with 360deg views on the last long down (Chalton). 'tis a very quiet route as well, away from roads (once out of Petersfield, where there is still a diversion in place around a new housing development, but that only caused a few minutes of delay).

    We got to the Red Lion 1/4 past 1 and the first arrivals fell into the 'table service'-trap, consequently getting their meals after all the later arrivals who ordered at the bar. To top it off, that lot also had coffees and left the pub long after the others. Not that it mattered, as we all ended up on the same train (16.46).

    11 on the platform, 2 met just north of Buriton in that beautiful valley without a name where we spotted 4 deer (they had driven to Buriton, from there walked with us to lunch and then back to their car), 1 overtaken in the woods south of Buriton (having missed the posted train, he was half an hour behind in Petersfield and took a taxi to Buriton). 14 sunny

  • 30-Jan-19

    There was about 1cm of snow on the North Downs above Wye: only on the tops and then not everywhere. See the SWC Facebook page. There was also a bit of cloud in the afternoon so you had better weather, and the ground in Kent was not frozen.

Thomas G
SWC Walk 18 Petersfield – Rowlands Castle
Length: 16.9 km (10.6 mi), Ascent/Descent: 327/355 m
Net Walking Time: ca. 4 hours, Toughness: 4 out of 10
Take the 10.30 Portsmouth Harbour train from Waterloo (Woking 10.55, G’ford 11.04), arrives Petersfield 11.31. From Clapster Junction take the 10.27 stopping service and change at Woking.
Return trains: xx.46 (87 mins). Buy a Rowlands Castle return.
An undulating ramble through the little known western reaches of the South Downs. Though there are a couple of steep climbs, the overall gradients are not too arduous, and your reward is some fine hilltop views in the second half of the walk.
For walk directions, map, height profile and gpx/kml files click here.
Lunch: either The Five Bells in Buriton (4.2 km/2.6 mi, food to 14.00) or The Red Lion in Chalton (10.5 km/6.5 mi, food to 15.00).
For details of the tea shop and the three pubs in Rowlands Castle check the walk directions pdf.T=swc.18

Next Week: Tuesday - Book 1 Walk 19 Hever to Leigh & Wednesday - Book 1 Walk 46 Wakes Colne to Bures
  • 29-Mar-17

    Out and Proud: Wood Sorrel, Wood Anemones, Lesser Celandines, Harebells, Wild Garlic, Native Bluebells (the latter only in one of the woods though, as far as could be ascertained). Rapeseed fields turning yellow more-and-more, Skylarks audible: spring, I suppose.

    Also present: 15 walkers off the scheduled train, + 1 other who had taken an earlier one, got caught at lunch in Chalton, only to disappear quickly with most of the sandwichers. So 16 in drizzle turning to rain until lunch then dry with some drizzle .

    I walked this for the first time and found that - apart from the route out of Petersfield from The Square onwards - the scenery was very scenic indeed, had a decent amount of variation, with some pretty villages, far views, plenty of varied woods and enough ups-and-downs over the rolling hills to keep one honest. Just a bit too short... So a very good mid-week walk.

    Pub lunch (friendly staff and competent but not memorable food) for about half the group, joined by a couple of sandwichers for a drink.

    Later 11 walkers in the Castle Inn in Rowlands for a bevvie.

    The fast ones caught the 15.46, those 11 the 16.46 train.

    Home before darkness.

Sun, 16-Aug-15 : The Western South Downs 6
PeteB
PeteB
Free walk 18 Petersfield to Rowlands Castle
Distance16km (9.9m); toughness 3/10.
Trains: London Waterloo 09.30 (Clapham Junction 09.39) arrives Petersfield 10.39. Return trains from Rowlands Castle at xx:13 to Waterloo. Buy a day return to Rowlands Castle.
A lovely undulating ramble through the little known western reaches of the South Downs. Hopefully in high summer it will be mud-free (see walk comments)
Have an early lunch or drink at the Five Bells 4km into the walk or continue to the Red Lion 9.5km into the walk which is probably the best option

PDF walk instructions and further details about the walk are here
Option to extend the walk to Cocking if you have a map. See end of walk instructions.
  • 17-Aug-15

    Any info on numbers, route accessibility and refreshment options very welcome.

  • Anonymous
    18-Aug-15

    Six on the walk. Instructions were clear and easy to follow. Lunch was at the second of the two recommended pubs - the one you get to about 2/3 of the way through the walk - we had to wait about 30 minutes for our food to arrive, as the pub was busy, but helpings were generous. Some of us had tea in one of the pubs in Rowlands Castle - there are a couple teashops in the village, but these close at 4.30. An enjoyable walk through a little-used part of the south downs.

  • Anonymous
    18-Aug-15

    6