Ashdown Forest and Five Hundred Acre Wood

By Ben Perkins

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This walk offers some excellent views and passes the Greenwood Gate Clump, the highest point on Ashdown Forest

Starting on the top of Ashdown Forest, this walk heads north with fine views before dropping down to explore Five Hundred Acre Wood. It then seeks out a detached segment of the forest and an attractive valley, before rising to Bunker’s Hill to the west of Crowborough.

This area is criss-crossed by a complicated network of paths, some not marked on the Explorer map, so care is needed to follow the described route accurately. The whole area is open for public access so it won’t matter too much if you do go adrift as long as you end up at the right place.

At point 5, you will be confronted by an unbridged stream where waterproof boots are advisable if you want to avoid wet feet. After heavy rain, the stream may be impassable. A somewhat circuitous alternative route is possible, indicated, which is not fully described in the text but this may be a walk best tackled during a reasonably dry spell.

1. From the side of the car park furthest from the road, set out along a wide path which starts to the right of a notice advising you to guard your valuables. After a few yards, bear right along a wide, grassy ride.

After another 100 yards, fork left along a concrete track, perforated to allow grass to grow through and disguise the unsightly surface. Shortly at another ride, turn right, soon passing to the right of the circular Greenwood Gate Clump, the highest point on Ashdown Forest.

For the next two miles you will be following the Wealdway, indicated by wooden posts, inscribed with the WW logo and the direction scored in the top. Where the main track divides, keep right and shortly fork left at a Wealdway post.

Continue northwards, soon with a wide view to the north-west across the Medway valley. Over to your left, another tree clump, Gills Lap, made famous in a thinly-disguised form, by A.A Milne’s Christopher Robin stories, is in view. Where the track next divides, fork left.

2. After about half a mile, the path enters Five Hundred Acre Wood, another A.A. Milne location, and begins to lose height.

Beyond a gate, go ahead, ignoring a crossing track. At a junction at the northern edge of the wood turn right, still with the Wealdway. A wide track descends into a dip, acquires a tarmac surface and climbs again. Follow the drive as it bears round to the left.

3. Just short of a red-brick cottage called Forest Place, leave the Wealdway which goes ahead on its way to Withyham. Instead, double sharply back to the right along a wide woodland track, gradually climbing. Where you have a choice of three ways ahead, yours is the one in the middle, the main track.

Follow the track as it curves round to the right, soon passing to the left of a pond, hidden behind a bank to the right of the path. Just past the pond, bear slightly left, still with the main track and ignoring forks to the right and left. Go ahead across an oblique crossing path and continue for another half a mile out to the B2188.

4. Cross the road and aim for the horse track opposite. Follow this path, not marked on the Explorer map, as it drops down, gradually diverging from the road, within earshot at first, away to your left.

As you descend, the trees thin and a fine view opens up across the valley to the heights of Crowborough. Where the path divides, keep right along the wider of the two paths which drops down to cross a hard track.

The signed horse path continues opposite, soon crossing a culvert over a tiny stream. Now keep left on a narrow path which winds down through trees, goes across a soggy dip and continues to reach a more substantial iron-coloured stream.

There is no footbridge but the stream is easily fordable except after heavy rain. If impassable, your only recourse is to return to the hard track crossed earlier and turn right out to the road at Mardens Hill. Turn right again, using the road to cross the stream, and make your way back to point 5 on the other side.

5. Once over the stream, follow a narrow path up to join a wide forest track. Go right for ten yards and turn left to climb fairly steeply, still on a wide track. Towards the top, go straight over a crossing track and up to Bunker’s Hill.

A fine balcony path continues along the hillside. Where it divides, fork right, dropping down to cross a wide stream culvert. Climb through thicker woodland and, after about 100 yards, go right over a solid-stone bridge and along a track.

Shortly, just past a large house on your left, fork left, still along a wide track and, after another 150 yards, fork right along an unmade access drive, passing a number of large houses on your left, on the western fringe of Crowborough.

6. After about half a mile, at a crossroads with Warren Road, turn right, now on a tarmac road.

After another two-thirds-of-a-mile, at the entrance to Home Farm, fork left along a rough track which descends, eventually crossing two streams and continuing past Old Mill Farm and another house. A steady climb for the best part of a mile brings you back to the B2188.

The car park is now about 100 yards to the left along the road.

To avoid the tarmac, cross the road and bear left along a path through to a ride where you should go left again.

Cross the concrete track used near the start and retrace your outgoing route back to the start.