Dorhea two

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Beginning with a lovely view of a church, you pass through a kissing gate leading through a relatively flat grassy path with a view of fields all around you. This peaceful walk has an easily distinguishable path that can be followed by people of all ages.

This will lead you to a road that you will need to walk along, which may contain fast travelling cars, before turning into a car park.

This follows to a wide path with trees on either side creating a forest scene. This can be extremely muddy in the wetter months of the year. This continues for a couple miles with various inclines and declines along the way.

This will eventually lead to another road that you will follow, walking safely along the pavement. Deviating slightly to the left, you will have a nice, long stretching view on a sunny day from Boxhill. This would be the perfect opportunity stop for a picnic/lunch and enjoy the sunshine and views. You then proceed down the hill via steep steps which can be slippery if not too careful. Once at the bottom, you will need to cross the river via stepping stones for the more daring (which may be submerged in water depending on river height) or via the footbridge.

You'll then walk alongside the road towards Denbies farm before reaching the end of your route.

An excellent route which combines some of the best (albeit oversubscribed) assets which the county of Surrey and Surrey Hills AONB have to offer. These include Headley Heath, Box Hill and the River Mole. Headley Heath is an interesting landscape of lowland heath; a rare biome, according the information boards, and while there can be some confusion with regards to similar looking pathways amongst the trees, those with decent map skills shouldn’t find this a problem. Box Hill has a viewpoint along the route which offers spectacular views of Dorking, Leith Hill, the Mole Valley, the Weald and both the North and (distantly) South Downs. As mentioned, the viewpoint and Box Hill in general are fairly busy at peak times, but definitely worth a look if you haven’t been before, or if this doesn’t bother you. For those going in the direction intended (Dorking to Headley), there is a steep climb up the escarpment slope of Box Hill, which can be challenging for casual walkers, but is fairly short (approximately 600m horizontal and 140m vertical) and a good way to burn some calories either side of a pub lunch! Like the viewpoint, the Stepping Stones are an iconic landmark but often get congested with large groups and families trying to either get across or bathe in the river, meaning that it can be a bit of a choke point at times. Additionally, it is not advisable to cross these when the river is running high, but there is an alternative route over a footbridge, approximately 100m downstream, which links up well with the rest of the route and is clearly indicated with signposts. With the stepping stones, escarpment slope and multiple kissing gates en route, it goes without saying that this is not a suitable slowway for disabled users, but is nonetheless a pleasant, semi-challenging walk of approximately 2-2.25 hours linking the two settlements nicely and offering a variety of interesting and scenic landmarks along the way. Definitely verifiable.

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