Walk of the month:Guestling Circular |
|
|---|---|
Very close to Hastings, here’s another lovely bit of countryside to explore. Gently hilly, at just over 3 miles (c.2 hrs) it’s a bit shorter than usual but no less sweet! If you want to make it longer there are paths making bigger loops beyond Pickham Mill so you can easily do so with the help of your Bexhill & Hastings 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey Explorer map. Likewise there’s also a shortcut to make it less than 2 miles, so a very flexible walk. You might not think so from the photos but it was cold and frosty when we did it… lovely! |
|
 |
|
| 1. The walk starts on a footpath off the A259 at Guestling Green. Facing north, the footpath is on the right, opposite a school. Go through the galvanised steel kissing gate here – there’s no waymarker, so look out. Follow the track NE (veer left) towards a church in the distance, uphill beyond the dip in the field. Pass a house on the left and head for the church. In the right corner of the field exit through the kissing gate, go down the slope to country lane. Turn left, then immediately right into church car park. Walk though the graveyard (entrance from car park) keeping the church on your left. The next gate out is behind the church, marked 1066 Country Walk. 2. Now take the left path, left of the pylon, which turns left between hedgerows. As the path descends, there could be a lot of mud here. Pass the pond on your left and go through the next gate and out into a field. Take the track over the gentle hill that veers right then gently downslope, following the pylon lines. You’ll pass a pond on your right at the bottom. 3. In the dip, follow the track right, behind the pond – on the map head for Pickham Mill, under the pylon lines. The path follows the line of the woods to your right. When the path forks, turn right away from the field on your left, where you can see a gate a short distance away, onto a road. There’s a stile just right of the gate. Turn right and follow this quiet lane downhill. Pass a house called Pickham Mill on the right and up slope on other side of bridge over a stream. 4. At the brow of the hill, turn right through a galvanised gate into a field – this turning is waymarked. The wood is ahead on the far side of the field. Now head for Guestling wood in left corner of field where there’s a stile, and the path cuts through the trees. Follow the path for some distance, continuing ahead at crossroad where there’s a waymarker (if you want to cut the walk short here, you can turn right and follow the footpath back to Guestling Green, but don’t try it without an OS map!). |
5. Pass a small carpark on your left and continue ahead on a curving path. At the track and four-waymarker, turn right just for a few steps, then left, to continue in the same direction as you came through the woods, up gentle slope and into the trees. Ignore the right fork off the path and head onwards. The path curves right then left and meets another open track through the trees. Turn right, then left to follow the waymarker at the bench – you’ll see a gate ahead. Exit the wood into a field and cross it at the right edge, next to the hedgerow. Go through the gate at the far side and again through the next gate (marked with yellow ESCC arrow). Turn right and pass through another gate (the footpath passes through the grounds of someone’s house). 6. Take the tarmac road up slope on the left, away from houses. There’s a footpath sign ahead. Follow the narrow, fenced parth and come out through a gate, down a few steps and onto the road. Turn right for a few steps. DON’T take the first path marked ESCC which is almost opposite, but just after, head through the overgrown, brambly gap in the hedge on the left and take this path over a stile (also marked yellow ESCC). This path follows the edge of the wood on your left, field on your right, down hill. Go through the gate at the bottom of the slope. 7. Head diagonally right across the field towards the pylon. You should see a stile in the hedge almost in the right corner of the field. You’re now in the grounds of Higham Farm, the stables to your right and sand-school to your left. Don’t turn into the stables but head through a gate which isn’t marked (this is a public footpath). You’re heading for the right top corner of the paddocks here, up hill. Go over a stile and out onto a road. Turn right onto Chappell Lane (the road in which we suggested parking), pass a house called Wild Meadows and back to Guestling Green. |
|
|
