Leith Hill

Leith Hill Tower

We met up with friends for the second of what will hopefully be a long series of walks chosen alternately. The first was on Box Hill and this one was also in the Surrey Hills AONB, at Leith Hill.

With lunch in mind, we started at the Stephan Langton Inn in the hamlet of Friday Street. The odd spelling demands a little investigation and it turns out that he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1207 in the reign of King John and was later one of the signatories of Magna Carta. The pub's website helpfully offers various explanations for his connection with the locality. I still don't know why Stephan is spelled with an a.

From here we walked southeast along, skilfully guided through a complex network of paths towards Leith Hill. The route was mainly on tracks through the woods, but there were some glimpses of open country and we enjoyed these delightfully posed bullocks set against the intense green of the field behind them.




Eventually we began the steady climb to Leith Hill and emerged under a warm, misty and still overcast sky.

Leith Hill Tower is the highest point in the south east of England - the top of the tower is 317 metres (1,029 ft) above sea level. The 19.5 metre (64 ft) tower, was built in 1765 by Richard Hull of Leith Hill Place for the express purpose of taking the hill top above 1000 ft. Pevsner provides further useful information about it. The original tower was raised in 1788 and the battlements and stair turret were added in 1864. It is, he says, an accurate cope of a Wealden (East Sussex) church tower of about 1300 - and a remarkable design for 1764.

According to the National Trust, which now owns the site, on a clear day it is possible to see 13 counties and as far as St Paul's Cathedral. It was too hazy for anything like that, but the views were still impressive.



After a restorative break for coffee and water, we began our descent, on an elliptical northwest route back to Friday Street. Initially we followed the route of the Greensand Way, hitherto unknown to us. It turns out that it is a 108 mile path linking Haslemere in Surrey with Hamstreet, near Ashford, in Kent and is named after the sandstone ridge which crosses Hampshire, Surrey and Kent.

Later we followed Abinger Bottom, a delightful path along the bottom (obviously) of a wooded valley, and in due course emerged at Friday Street for a pleasant lunch at the pub.



Distance: about 6 miles.

Map: Explorer146 (Dorking, Box Hill and Reigate).

Rating: four stars. Wonderfully quiet and green, lovely views. Possibly slightly claustrophobic, being in woodland so much.


Flower of the day

We didn't see many flowers, but this Large-flowered Hemp-nettle was widespread beside the woodland tracks