This is an interesting walk through woods and heathland with some ups and downs. A good workout for your January health kick! The walk was submitted by Guildford Rambling Club (see guildfordramblingclub.org.uk).
1. Walk clockwise around the pond keeping about 100 yards in from the edge. You will reach a point where two fenced corridors stretch out ahead of you. Take the left-most one. At the corridor’s end, jink left to find a point where you can cross the road. Take the path opposite, straight out across the heath and up onto the ridge. Now turn left and walk a few hundred yards to find the wide track dropping off the ridge and down to the right (you can see Frensham Little Pond ahead and away over to the left).
2. Follow the track down and continue forward, ignoring lefts and rights, until reaching a junction with a barrier on your left and some houses ahead. Turn through the barrier and immediately fork right through a few bushes to reach the end of a road. Walk along this road, again ignoring lefts and rights until, about 200 yards after fording a stream, taking a wide track left.
3. Follow the signpost i.e. ignore the first, unsigned track left. Ignore a later track forking left and reach a T-junction by a blue arrow post and a house. Continue straight ahead along a narrow, fenced corridor passing two Nissen huts in a field. The corridor ends and again you continue forward, following the track until eventually reaching a road.
4. Turn right and walk about ½ mile to a cross roads. Go straight over and forward along the short dead end road ahead. Pass a barrier and straight out onto the edge of Hankley Common Golf Club. A few yards in, take the wide track forking off right and follow it as it climbs up to the ridge. Turn right and walk a long way along the arc of the ridge. Down to your left is a large area of Ministry Of Defence heathland, used from time to time by film companies. Pass a WD marker stone and continue on. Pass a little hillock on the left-hand side and the track swings right to reach a junction where a red arrow points left along the “Red Trail”.
5. Follow this to a cross paths where another red arrow points left again but this one you ignore. Instead go straight ahead. The path drops down through trees to a T-junction with a wide track. Turn right and quickly reach a house, Houndmere. Climb up the path at the left-hand side of its garden to reach a road. Cross and walk about 150 yards along to the left to find a footpath heading right and away from the road. Follow this for about 400 yards to its end where it drops down to cross a small field and a stream to reach a lane.
6. Turn left along the lane to reach Dye House Road. Now, turn right and walk along this road to pass a cottage and quickly reach a track off to the right. Ignore the path climbing up straight ahead, take the one breaking off right and up a short steep slope. At the top turn left and quickly reach a few houses and the end of a lane. Walk up the lane to emerge by a tiny green and a “Thors Lea” sign. The excellent Three Horseshoes pub is to the right, the cricket green (a possible picnic site) to the left.
7. After lunch walk along the road to the cricket pitch and take a path out left, into trees, opposite the entrance to the parking area. The path goes down through trees the Dye House Road again. You will now reverse a section of the last part of the morning walk. Turn left and walk a few yards to turn into the side road (a sign says Haybarn). A little way along here turn right to go through a gate. Cross the small field and the little footbridge then follow the path up and through trees to reach a road. This time, go straight across and down the slope to the access road to Houndmere (the house which you passed earlier).
8. By the house turn right and go through a barrier to climb a slope. About 50 yards up this slope turn left onto a wide track. Follow this, gradually rising, continuing forward when you merge with a track coming in from the right. The track then levels out. There is downward slope on the left-hand side and a hill on the right. The track swings around the hill to run parallel to a road which you can see down and across to the left. Continue forward, ignoring lefts and rights. Pass a small car park. Again, continue forward. Pass a wooden paneling fence and a house (on the left-hand side) and continue on. Ignore a track, left, which goes down to the road. The track you are on now swings a little to the right and starts to rise. Follow it up and then, at the top, fork left to stay close to a fence.
9. The path now drops down to join another path from the left. Continue forward, still parallel to the road. Reach a junction where two wide tracks join from the right and with a hill ahead on your right. A little further on you reach some MOD warning signs and, here, you take a short track left to reach the road. You emerge by the entrance to Rushmoor Lakes. Cross the road and go a little way left to cross the start of Sandy Lane, a side road heading right. On the far side, immediately take a footpath right, next to a telephone box. Quickly go past a barrier and follow a yellow arrow straight ahead across a wide, open area of heathland. The track swings left and you can see the Devils Jumps hill away to your left.
10. Continue to reach and go straight across a large cross tracks. Now you are walking along with a fence on your left. Continue forward and follow the track as it swings out across the heath towards trees. There is a small pond away to your right. In the trees you turn left and proceed along a permitted private track to reach a lane, emerging next to a house, The Point. Turn right. Now walk along the lane for some distance, eventually passing Crosswater House then Harolds Hill. The lane becomes a track.
11. Reach a multiway junction with a two-way signpost. Go straight on. The track eventually reaches a road. Take the path which runs to the right, just off the edge of the road. When you reach a yellow arrow pointing right (away up the slope you can see a small memorial), turn left to cross the road and drop down the bank to pick up a path anti-clockwise around the edge of Frensham Great Pond. Keep going until you reach the refreshment kiosk and the car park.
DISTANCE:10 miles
OS MAPS: Explorer 145 Guildford & Farnham
STARTING POINT: Park in the car park by the refreshment kiosk at the Pond, Bacon Lane, Churt, Surrey GU10 2QB.
