Stonegate to Robertsbridge walk

The High Weald, Kipling’s home, and panoramic views

Skies over the Weald (Stonegate to Robertsbridge) Kipling's manor.
Skies over the Weald (Stonegate to Robertsbridge)

Kipling's manor.

Jan-15 • anon_e on Flickr

brushstrokes kipling cloudwatching walkicon swcwalks swcwalk112 16068177550

Old House
Old House

Apr-17 • stephenmid on Flickr

swcwalks swcwalk112 walkicon 33149113363

CIMG0227 Spindle tree near the railway crossing
CIMG0227

Spindle tree near the railway crossing

Nov-11 • Sean O'Neill

swcwalk112, swcwalks 5672278277916509586 P

CIMG0228 Shaggy parasols in field outside Burwash
CIMG0228

Shaggy parasols in field outside Burwash

Nov-11 • Sean O'Neill

swcwalk112, swcwalks 5672278302889873346 P

CIMG0230 Bateman's
CIMG0230

Bateman's

Nov-11 • Sean O'Neill

swcwalk112, swcwalks 5672278324089702898 P

CIMG0232 Bateman's
CIMG0232

Bateman's

Nov-11 • Sean O'Neill

swcwalk112, swcwalks 5672278354348985314 P

CIMG0233 Pond at Bateman's
CIMG0233

Pond at Bateman's

Nov-11 • Sean O'Neill

swcwalk112, swcwalks 5672278376824634418 P


Length

14km (8.7 miles)

17km (10.6 miles) using the morning of Stonegate Circular walk

Toughness 4 out of 10: some hills, but relatively gentle gradients
Maps

OS Landranger 199 covers the whole route from Stonegate to Robertsbridge

OS Explorer 136 covers all but the last mile into Robertsbridge

OS Explorer 124 covers Burwash to Robertsbridge

Features

This is a hilly – but relatively gentle – walk through the High Weald, which is particular beautiful in April and late October or early November. In April it offers plenty of wild flowers and has hornbeam trees throughout the walk, which become a mass of catkins at this time. The same trees also produce fine yellow or golden tints in autumn.

The walk shares a very short section of the Stonegate Circular walk on this website and like that walk visits the pretty ridgetop village of Burwash for lunch and Batemans, the former home of the writer Rudyard Kipling, now owned by the National Trust. But its route is otherwise quite different.

In the morning it takes a shorter route across the valley to Burwash and from Bateman’s onwards, the walk strikes out into completely new territory, climbing by gentle stages up onto a ridge that gives you a fine backwards view towards Burwash. It then crosses the country estate of Socknersh Manor before descending via another ridge, with fine views, into Robertsbridge.

Walk Options For a longer morning of 6.6km (4.1 miles), use the standard morning route of the Stonegate Circular walk on this site. This lengthens the walk to 17km (10.6 miles) in total
Travel Stonegate is on the Hastings line and is served by hourly trains from Charing Cross and London Bridge taking one hour ten minutes. The first train after 10am will be quite adequate to get you to lunch in time, and as this walk has a short morning, you could even take a train after 11am. Buy a day return to Robertsbridge, which is two stops further down the line. There is ample paid car parking at Stonegate.
Lunch and tea

There are two pubs in Burwash for lunch, 3.6km/2.2 miles into the walk. The most convenient is the Rose & Crown (01435 882600), which has both inside and outside seating, and serves food from 12pm-3pm daily, remaining open all afternoon for drinks: food is also served from 5.30pm to 8.30pm Wednesday to Saturday. The Bear Inn (01435 882 540), 150 metres to the west, serves food 12-2.30pm Monday to Friday and all afternoon Saturday and Sunday. It is also open all afternoon Monday to Friday for drinks.

Burwash also has a cafe, Blacksmiths Tea and Coffee Shop, open till 4pm Wednesday to Sunday and serving sandwiches and paninis.

If you are planning to visit Batemans, it is only 1.1km beyond Burwash and has a National Trust tea room serving hot meals at lunchtime (until 2.30pm or so) and tea and cakes until 5pm March to October and 4pm November to February. To access the tea room, you have to pay to go into Batemans, however – unless you are a National Trust member.

For picnics Burwash churchyard or the fields between the village and Batemans are a good spot.

After that, there are no further refreshment stops until you reach Robertsbridge. Here the Ostrich by the station is a pleasantly quirky pub with a nice garden, or you can walk up to the village centre for the George Inn, a somewhat smarter and more modern pub. Judges Bakery in the village centre also serves hot drinks and has two or three tables: it is open until 4pm Monday to Saturday.

Robertsbridge also has two convenience stores if you want to get snacks or supplies for the train. The larger One Stop has a Costa coffee machine (no tea though!) and is open till 10pm daily, but the smaller Village Store has a better selection of snacks, cakes and pastries: it is open till 7pm Monday to Saturday.

Profile
Help Us!

After the walk, please leave a comment, it really helps. Thanks!

You can also upload photos to the SWC Group on Flickr (upload your photos) and videos to Youtube. This walk's tags are:

swcwalks
swcwalk112
By Train

Out (not a train station)

Back (not a train station)

By Car

Start TN5 7ER Map Directions Return to the start:

Finish TN32 5DJ Map Directions Travel to the start:

Amazon
Help

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

Version

Dec-23 Peter

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