Buxted circular (From The Argus)

Buxted circular

9:00am Monday 31st October 2011 in East Sussex By Ben Perkins

1 - From Buxted Station walk out to the A272 and turn left. After about 200 yards, turn left along Church Road. After about 400 yards, fork left along a hedged drive, signed as a public footpath on an electricity post.

Where the drive ends, go ahead, passing to the right of a barn. Squeeze to the right of a gate and head out across a field, gradually converging on the railway, away to your left. In the far left field-corner, go left across a bridge over the railway.

Now head very slightly left down across a field, cross the River Uck via a footbridge and head squarely out across the next field, joining and following the right edge. Follow a trodden headland path as it curves left and, after a few yards, bears right through a gap and on along the left edge of a field to join a lane over a stile in the corner.

2 - Turn left, back over the Uck and, after a few yards, turn right along a path which starts by squeezing to the right of the gateway to a house called Willow Lodge. Continue through woodland and then across two paddocks with a swing gate between them.

In view to you left is a dramatic sandstone outcrop, a characteristic feature of this part of the Weald.

In the corner of the second paddock, go forward over a footbridge, and on, walking beside or parallel to the left edge of three fields, ignoring a second footbridge on your left and a signed path to the right.

At the end of the third field, join a drive and turn left for a few yards out to a road, where you should turn right and walk into High Hurstwood.

3 - Just past the Hurstwood Inn on your right, turn right along Royal Oak Lane, After half a mile, just past a postbox on your right, ignoring the drive to an equestrian centre on your left, go ahead along a hard-surfaced track.

Just past a row of cottages on the left, where the drive bends right, fork left along a tarmac access drive. After a few yards, fork right along a narrow signed footpath, which skirts to the left of a garden to reach a stile.

Over this stile, go forward along a track. After a few yards, at a finger-post, turn left through a gate and go ahead along a right field-edge. After about 150 yards, go right through a gate and, ignoring a second gate ahead, turn left along a woodland path.

After less than 100 yards, go right over a stile and forward along a left field-edge. Once over another stile, go ahead for 30 yards, then right along the drive from Sleeches Farm House to join a lane and turn left.

4 - Just past Lower Sleeches Farm House on your right, turn right through a bridle gate next to a farm gate and drop downhill along a right field-edge. Pass beneath an arch of an impressive railway viaduct, go over a footbridge and on along a left field-edge to reach and cross a second footbridge.

For the next half-mile some care is needed as the path is undefined and unsigned.

Once over the second footbridge, turn left, up along a right field-edge and continuing uphill in the same direction, walking parallel to, but well away from, the right field-edge.

Pass through a tree belt using a plank bridge and collapsed stile. Emerge into the next field over a second and more robust stile, and head squarely across a field, passing a few yards to the left of a tree-shrouded pit.

Go through a wide gap in another row of trees and maintain direction, never far from the ragged, irregular right edge of two more fields to join a road. Turn right to follow the road for about a quarter of a mile down into the Uck valley.

5 - At the bottom of the hill, a few yards past the entrance to Huggett’s Furnace Farm on your left, turn right over a stile beside a gate and head out across a field to pass through a visible gap in the left-hand hedge.

Continue with this hedge on your right, go through another gap in the field-corner and veer slightly left up across the next field, aiming for a gate on the skyline. Cross an iron platform stile, welded on to this gate, and go ahead along the right field-edge where, in sharp contrast to other paths on this walk, a mown swathe has been prepared for walkers. In the corner go ahead along a track and shortly veer right along a right field-edge, passing well to the right of an elegant barn conversion.

Cross a field and join a drive which takes you past various buildings at Howbourne Farm. Continue with the drive, which becomes a lane.

6 - Just past Howbourne Cottage on the right, turn right through a bridle gate and along the left edge of the cottage garden, then left over a stile and ahead on a straight, stiled route, across two fields, through a wood, across another field and on behind gardens.

At a T-junction with a drive, turn right, soon entering a woodland path.

At a meeting of paths, go ahead over a stile and uphill between tree-lined banks.

Feed into a hard-surfaced track which you can now follow for half a mile back to the start, rejoining your outgoing route on the way.

* Distance/Time: Six and a half miles/three and a half hours

* By Car: Start from Buxted on the A272 north of Uckfield. Roadside parking is possible with care along Church Road, near the church at GR 499235

* By Public Transport: Take the train from Uckfield or Tunbridge Wells

* What’s underfoot: Mainly along good field paths, tracks and quiet lanes. Path between points 4 and 5 is undefined and unsigned, requiring care with navigation

* Thirsty Work: Pubs at Buxted and High Hurstwood (point 3)

* So you don’t get lost: OS Explorer map 135