Walking the North Downs Way Section 1: Farnham to Guildford

Welcome to the North Downs Way, a national trail that will lead you through the beautiful English countryside and some quaint little villages. It’ll offer magnificent views and fascinating heritage — overall, a rather grounding experience which might provoke some epiphanies and bit of laughter along the way. It worked for me, so hopefully the following posts will inspire and entertain as and when needed.

As mentioned in my previous post, I started my journey in sections. There are 15 in total and I covered the first five on four different weekends throughout the summer of 2019 before finishing the rest of the trail in October this year (2020) as I wild camped my way down to Dover. The final sections were quite an adventure, but let’s start at the beginning and explore the beautiful nature around Surrey Hills first by travelling on foot (and in pictures) from Farnham to Otford, and apparently intellectually, from Huxley to Darwin, who would have thought?! So, let’s tie up those boots and get walking…

Section 1: Farnham to Guildford, 11 miles (17.7 km)

Where to start? Well, that’s an easy one today — Farnham! To be more precise, if you go there by train (or by car and park close to Farnham Station), make your way to the main station exit and then go straight ahead down Station Hill. Walk all the way to the traffic lights at the junction with the A31 Farnham bypass. Cross to your right and you will find a North Downs Way signpost, the actual start of your route for your day(s) ahead.

The sign marking the starting point is rather impressive but unfortunately, it’s right next to the bypass, so quite hard to get a good picture of and not necessarily the most idyllic spot to hang around for much longer than needed. It could potentially make you doubt my descriptions so far but rest assured, it’ll get quieter and life shall slow down once you made it over that hump, or bypass in this case.

Also, don’t worry about getting the perfect shot to capture your journey from start to finish. I failed to do so as well as I was ready to leave those streets behind as fast as I could to then stumble across a rather odd-looking bench — apparently, I was looking at a ‘bee orchid’ that was elaborately carved into the ‘North Downs Way Seat’ as it’s called, one of two that were commissioned from local artists to mark the start and finish of the route. Spoiler alert, I might have failed to capture the second one. So, if you make it to Dover and come across it, send it my way — it would be interesting to see if the artists surprise with another orchid or a more Kentish flower at the finish?

Once you’ve passed the bench, it should be a straight forward walk as you travel eastward from Farnham past various landmarks, through the Runfold Wood Nature Reserve hopefully surprising you with some wildlife to spot, and villages which inspired many writers back in the day. Puttenham is one to pay attention to as it was featured in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in 1932.

If all goes to plan, you’ll be finishing your day along the River Wey in Guildford. Feel free to keep going if you’re aiming for two sections in a day, something that’s probably possible for long-legged fast walkers who stick to the route and don’t take a scenic detour like I did.

Walking with confidence eagerly following the North Downs Way signposts which can be a bit hit-and-miss at times, I somehow managed to make my way to Waverley Abbey, which was definitely not on the agenda but nonetheless a sight to see as its ruins were apparently featured in the apocalyptic movie 28 Days Later (2002). While making my way back to the trail, I also climbed Crooksbury Hill, another one of Surrey’s hidden gems. Lucky me, I found it without even looking for it. Pre-warning, it was quite a climb but the view was all worth it, as so often.

Crooksbury Hill is actually a nice spot for a little break before making your way back on track, assuming you do end up following my misguided footsteps. If more of a purist or not wanting to leave your day and directions up to chance, it might be worth looking into an App called ViewRanger which I used for some of the later sections when going off track became a bit of a habit (before turning into an OS nerd in 2020). If you do get it, make sure to download the applicable map at home, so you can still use it offline as signal can be quite rare out there, which is part of the whole outdoor experience offering a proper detox from people and technology if needed.

In case you want to push it even further and go more old school (while also saving your phone battery for pictures), the trail guide I mentioned before (Colin Saunders’ National Trail Guide for the North Downs Way) might be the way to go as it includes maps for all sections along with detailed descriptions of directions and other useful information. Getting lost and finding your way back is often part of the fun, but having to double back on yourself when carrying 20kg around sounded a bit less appealing, wherefore I purchased the brochure before my wild camping endeavour, an investment my feet were thankful for.

Despite my little detour, this section is rather quaint and easy to follow, no major incidents or encounters to report, so a good way to start the long-distance trail and break in your NDW legs, but see for yourself:

If you decide one section is enough, you will finish your day in Guildford whereby I’d recommend stopping once you hit the River Wey and are supposed to cross via a nice-looking footbridge to your right. The official ending of the first section is a bit further on past the bridge, something I saved for the next time as it was much nicer to follow the river to the left which will lead you towards Guildford Station. While strolling along the riverside, you will walk by The White House, a rather inviting looking pub potentially worth a stop if you feel like rehydrating and celebrating the successful completion of your very first section of the North Downs Way.

One done, 14 more to go…

When was I there? 10 August 2019

Section 2:

Guildford to Westhumble

13 miles (21 km)

Section 1:

Farnham to Guildford

11 miles (17.7 km)