I'm not normally a rambler, but my friend had been trying to convince us to join him for a ramble for a while. We conceded, and our destination was Box Hill (in Surrey); I had not heard of it, so decided to google the area. I learnt that it was the backdrop to the picnic scene in "Emma", and as a Jane Austen enthusiast, this made the prelude to the trip all the more exciting. Luckily for us, it was really sunny on the day, so I managed to get some great photos. I also learnt from wikipedia that a British biker rock band released a single called "Boxhill or Bust", which explains why there were so many bikers there (although it could be that they just enjoyed the scenery...)
HOW TO GET THEREWe took the train from Victoria to "Box Hill & Westhumble" station. It took us 50 minutes, and cost us about £6 for return tickets; we have 19-25 rail cards though, so the price would normally be about £9. The trains are Southern Rail trains; not the best of quality, but it wasn't overly packed on the Saturday. The Box Hill station is small but quite quaint; there are only two platforms, and not many trains run through per hour.
OUR RAMBLE TO THE PEAK...
Once you leave the station, you turn left, go underneath an underpass, and you follow a public footpath. The walk is a good 15 minutes before you reach the foot of the hill. On the way there, there is a stream which could be a nice spot for a picnic (we didn't think that far ahead), and there were quite a few dogwalkers around. There are also some "stepping stones" through the stream. We had actually crossed on a bridge, but decided to cross the river on the stepping stones and back, as there weren't many people around and we weren't in the way. The stones were quite slippery, but the river/stream wasn't deep in any case.
The scenery on the base of the hill was beautiful. Living in zone 1 of London, it's great to just head out now and again and see the countryside. London has some great parks, but you can't compare it to the rambling masses of stinging nettles and berry shrubs dotted around everywhere... There were many fallen trees to clamber over, and we did monkey around on the trees ever so slightly (fallen and unfallen ones).
The incline up the hill was quite steep. There were steps though, and gravel to make it less slippery. The steps were quite large, so you had to do 2 mini steps or one big step, which I thought was more tiring. Still, it was great exercise. On the way up, there are breaks from the trees, and you can take "beauty spot" breaks to admire (and take photos)... but also to catch your breath. There's only one really long steep incline which was troublesome; it was about 3-4 storeys of steps in one go, and that was the only bit I actually did struggle and needed to take a short breather (embarassingly...)
Once you hit the top though, the views are amazing. You can see all of Dorking, and there's a viewing station mapping out areas you can see; Gatwick airport, Devil's Dyke (in Brighton), and the South Downs.
As I mentioned, it was a really sunny day on Saturday, but with some clouds. This didn't disrupt the experience though.
FACILITIES AT THE TOP
Heading away from Dorking, you cross the road. [Yes, you can drive up to Box Hill... I wish I had known whilst I was climbing up, as I felt really bad that so many elderly people were coming down (assuming they had climbed up, and they didn't seem tired at all..!)] As I was saying, you cross the road and reach the National Trust shop/cafe. They have clean toilets there, which are free, with a separate disabled toilet. To the right, is a cafe; they sell a range of branded ice creams, a local ice cream, some home made cakes and biscuits, and the typical drinks list from a cafe. It was reasonably priced for a tourist attraction, and I paid about £5 for a cup of tea, cup of filter coffee, a carrot cake and twister.
There was also a National Trust shop. The items in there were, again, reasonably priced. There were some fleeces, walking sticks, toys and general NT merchandise. There were also some leaflets telling us what events they had on offer; the day after our visit, they had a military day which would have been great fun. They also have some planned walks, and festive activities for children (such as wreath making). There was also a sign up in the toilets advertising a room in the National Trust building for team building exercises or meetings, at £40 a day which seemed a reasonable price (at a beautiful location).
OUR RAMBLE DOWN TO DORKING
We looked at a 3D relief map by the NT shop, and decided to visit the grave of a local; he asked to be buried on his head as the world had "gone topsy turvy" after the French Revolution (or so we think...) It was a very simple grave, but it was worth seeing anyway as it was by a path and we didn't have to go out of our way much. After that, we headed through the car park onto another public footpath. We walked for about 25 minutes through woodlands, just taking our time until we reached a tower. The tower had a tree growing through it, and was only 3 storeys or so high. In the interests of taking some interesting photos, I clambered in through one of the holes (which was quite a snug fit). The view from the tower was fantastic (although I couldn't climb up, it was raised due to years of leaves building up there), as you can see two stately homes at the bottom. As well as that, there was some graffiti dating from the early 20th century!! We clambered down a mini hill, and continued our journey through the woods.
We then reached the "zig zag road" (actual name), which has some absolutely stunning houses lining it. The view back to Box Hill was beautiful, as we admired how far we had so far walked. We kept going, and reached a vineyard. The linearity of the crops were beautiful, in their way, and the Sun shone so brightly that the leaves seemed to be glowing in an ethereal manner. I was stunned that this was in England, and really wanted to buy a few bottles of wine, but the shop was closed by that time.
Our feet were getting tired by now as we were just wearing our normal every day shoes, so we were sightly grumpy... we continued walking on the public footpath, and were about 1 3/4 miles from Dorking at this point. This part of the trip was also pretty, as we were walking through quaint houses in Surrey, and for a good 5 minutes was walking through a very narrow pathway. We met many other people there, and they were all good natured and greeted us, and we shrank aside to let the other party through (too narrow for 2 people to walk side by side).
Finally, we reached Dorking. It appeared to be quite a cute town, with lots of antique shops and pubs. The first pub we reached was a gay pub (which is fine), but only had BYO (bring your own) food, which wasn't so great as we were craving for some pub grub. The next ones we encountered only served food from 12-3, and one that did seem to serve food in the evenings (The Kings Arm) had a very strong urine and BO smell... so we kept battling on. We eventually found a very nice pub on Dene Street; I can't recall the name, but google maps thinks its called "Arty P's" although I'm pretty sure that wasn't the name when we went there. They had amazing burgers, whilst I opted for a fish and chips. The fish was fresh, the chips were great, but the mushy peas were regretabbly microwaved. I was still very satisfied by the meal, although that may have been due to being savagely hungry.We took the train back from Dorking; we were lucky that the train was only 10 minutes away, as they only run every hour!!
WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS?
Well, I would, as I really enjoyed my day. The incline is quite steep, so not that suitable for people with mobility issues, although the view from the top is splendid and may well be worth it if you go up in a car. I think it's a great day out for Londoners, and it's very family and dog friendly. It's also great for cyclists, and we saw quite a lot of them around; I imagine the zig zag road would be particularly fun to go down. If visiting London for a week, I wouldn't really recommend it as a place to visit, as it's not the most exhilarating place in the world. The main attractions are: the stepping stones, the grave, the tower and the views. It's the company and mindset you go that makes the place enjoyable though, so I guess it depends on what you're looking for :)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION- All day parking is £3 at the car park on the top of the hill.
- Cycle routes available here: http://www.sustrans.org.uk/map?type=attractions&key=NT1514
- Ordnance Survey reference: 187:TQ171519
- Elevation: 172m
- Telephone: 01306 885502
- E-mail: boxhill@nationaltrust.org.uk
Opening TimesCOUNTRYSIDE: Open all year
SERVERY:
1 Jan-27 March 1000-1600
28 March-30 October 0900-1700
31 October-31 December 1000-1600
SHOP/DISCOVERY ZONE
1 Jan-27 March 1100-1600
28 March-30 October 1100-1700
31 October-31 December 1100-1600
**PHOTOS ARE UP** :D
Bounding up Box Hill 
Took the extended family here the other year for some kite flying, lovely place.