Greensand Way 1 : Witley to Haslemere via Thursley, Surrey Hills walk

This is the start of the Greensand Way (GW), but for logistical reasons, it's recommended you do it in reverse, as Haslemere is a better place to finish, having pubs, tea rooms, and more regular trains. It's a lovely walk through wooded countryside climbing a hill overlooking Devil's Punchbowl after lunch. It makes a lovely autumn walk with leaf colour, sweet chesnuts, and iconic Fly Agaric toadstool mushrooms.

The walks starts gently through woods, and crosses the A3 (safely) to Thursley.

Thursley's St Michael and All Angels church is worth a visit. There are some benches with a lovely view in the churchyard (a good picnic spot). A nearby grave has a poignant 'husband died 1917 wife died 1980' epitaph. Lunch is in The Three Horseshoes, a community owned pub with a nice beer garden, 500m off the route, north of the church.

After lunch there's a direct route via a sunken byway to Gibbet Hill (272 metres / 892 ft) which climbs a now peaceful spur of the hill, with dramatic views into Devil's Punch Bowl after first crosses the punchbowl itself.

The area was once notorious for highwaymen. In 1786, a sailor (buried in Thursley's church, and commemorated by the Sailor's Stone) was robbed and murdered after drinking at a pub in Thursley. The 3 murderers were caught and hung here. This area is now peaceful as the A3 was diverted in a tunnel under the hill in 2011 (so older OS maps will be out of date here). The former road is now grassed over.

After the summit, the walk follows the rim to Hindhead (NT visitor centre and cafe, pub).

Finally, its down a rim on the south side of the hill into Haslemere. The centre has some nice old buildings, 2 pubs and 2 tea rooms. The station is about 10 mins walk away, where you'll find a pub/bistro opposite.

The walk is fairly easy to follow. Its waymarked with yellow, or older blue 'GW' markers, but not well enough to follow without a map or GPS.

• Take the train from Waterloo Station to Witley. Journey time 50 minutes. Buy a day return to Haslemere.
• There are up to four trains an hour back from Haslemere. Journey time 50-60 minutes.
• By car: park at Witley which has a pay station car-park and free on-street parking nearby. 1 stop by direct train from Haslemere (1 per hour). Haslemere has a pay station car park, and free on-street parking west of the station (under the rail bridge, away from the town centre) at weekends

Suggested Train : Nearest to 10.00am

• The Three Horseshoes, a pleasant community owned and but professionally run pub in Thursley (01252 703268) has an informal eating area and restaurant inside the pub plus extensive seating outdoors in the attractive beer garden. Just off the route in Thursley. Sandwiches ~ £10, main ~ £15. [After 6.5 km]
• For a picnic, try Thursley's churchyard [6.3 km], or the summit of Gibbet Hill [11 km].

• In Hindhead [12.3 km] are the National Trust’s Devil’s Punch Bowl Café (tel. 01428 606565) with outdoor seating, and the Devil’s Punchbowl Hotel & Restaurant (tel. 01428 606565)

• Surrey Council have several leaflets of the Surrey (west) part of the route with OS mapping and directions (but not accomodation or public transport information) available from their website
• Kent Council also have leaflets of the Surrey section, but not, oddly, of the Kent section [Aug-23]
• The original guidebook to the walk is long out of print and hard to get. It did have OS mapping (with the contours removed!). In any case, the route has had many small changes in the meantime.

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:

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

Oct-22 Andrew