It was a chilly February morning in Ewhurst, in the lee of the Surrey hills. Snowdrop clumps were still full and white down in the sheltered hollow of Coneyhurst Gill where the sharp, sweet song of a robin laid the archetypal soundtrack for a wintry walk in the woods.
We followed a muddy path up towards the tree-hung escarpment of the great Greensand Ridge that cradles the lowlands of the Surrey Weald. This was all loud and smoky ironworking country in the late Middle Ages, but these days the fine large houses of the stockbroker belt look out from their hillside eyries on to paddocks and pastures that lie silent and unblemished.
Signs of spring were already infiltrating the closed doors of winter — lamb’s-tail catkins and tiny scarlet flowers on hazel twigs, rushy spears of bluebell leaves under the oaks, and an insistent bubbling of birdsong up in the high woods along the ridge. A stream stained orange by iron leachings had cut deeply into the Greensand, and the golden ball of a crab apple bobbed endlessly in a back eddy where the brook had trapped it for a plaything.
The Greensand Way trail strings together the promontories and heights of the escarpment, and we followed its knobbly yellow track to Holmbury Hill. In the century before the Romans invaded Kent, a Belgic tribe built a mighty fort here with ramparts and ditches as tall as three men. From its southern lip a wonderful view opens out across the Weald and away towards the South Downs some 20 miles off. On clear days walkers on Holmbury Hill can spot the semaphore flashes of the sea at Shoreham on the Sussex coast. But today all was muted and misty down there.
Using gorse branches as banisters, we groped our way down a precipitous slope below the hill fort. At the foot of the escarpment the mud-squelching track of Sherborne Lane led us back through the fields towards Ewhurst, between hedges where primroses were already beginning to cluster among the hawthorn roots.
Advertisement
Start and finish The Bulls Head, Ewhurst, Surrey GU6 7QD (OS ref TQ 090408).
Getting there Bus 63 (Horsham to Guildford). Road Ewhurst is on B2127 between Forest Green and Cranleigh.
Walk 6 miles, moderate grade, OS Explorer 145, 146 (detailed directions are recommended — download them with online maps and more walks at christophersomerville.co.uk). Cross B2127; follow Wykehurst Lane. In half a mile cross Coneyhurst Gill (082407); in 50m, right (FP, stile) through trees. In 600m, left along road (081413); in 50m, right (“Rapsley”) on bridleway north for half a mile to road (081422). Right; in 100m, left up Moon Hall Road. In 200m, left opposite Folly Hill (084422, FP) on bridleway to turn right along Greensand Way/GW (085425). Follow waymarked GW for 1½ miles via Duke of Kent School (089430) and Holmbury Hill car park (098431) to Holmbury Hill fort (104429). 150m beyond trig pillar, right (105429; warning notice) very steeply down slope to road (105428). Right; in 200m, left off road; fork right on path to left of “Wayfarers” gate (FP). Cross road (103426); down drive with staddle stones (FP). By pond, fork left (FP) along Sherborne Lane bridleway. In ¾ mile, left (093418) across driveway; footpath (FP) across Path Four Acres field, into wood (094414). Right (FP) to Ewhurst.
Conditions Muddy/wet paths; very steep slope down from Holmbury Hill fort.
Lunch/accommodation The Bulls Head, Ewhurst (bullsheadewhurst.co.uk).
More information Guildford TIC (01483 444333); visitengland.com;satmap.com