Hascombe Hill
Godalming
On this walk, children will enjoy the mysterious standing stones and visiting ducks and geese on the village pond.
The Dragon Stones on Hascombe Hill
The Basics
Time: 1 hr 10 mins around Hascombe Hill, with an extra 40 mins to get to the standing stones and back.
Distance: 3.4 km around Hascombe Hill, with an extra 2.2 km to get to the standing stones and back.
Terrain: Unsurfaced bridleways and forest paths with some steep ascents and descents, some muddy sections in winter, a busy road crossing.
Pushchairs: This route is not suitable for pushchairs.
Dogs: Dogs are welcome on this walk.
Refreshments: The White Horse in Hascombe is opposite the car park.
Toilets: There are no public toilets on this walk.
Public Transport: Compass Travel bus route 42 from Cranleigh/Godalming/Guildford stops by the pub, where this walk starts.
Parking: There is a free car park for walkers opposite the pub (Postcode: GU8 4JA - W3W: ///nightfall.manages.encoding)
Hascombe Village Pond
Hascombe Hill is a steeply wooded hill that was once the site of an Iron Age hillfort. Footpaths and bridleways take you from the pub at the bottom up and around the hillside with beautiful views along the way. As and added extra, you can take a diversion to the Dragon Stones, a modern standing stone circle placed on the hillside by the Order of Druids.
The Route
The route starts at the car park opposite The White Horse. Cross the road and follow Nore Lane, a bridleway just to the right of the pub. The track will take you past a large farm, and then continue, rising gradually towards the trees of Nore Hanger in the distance.
As you reach the trees, you will see a footpath to your right on the corner of the fence line with a yellow arrow. If you do not want to take the diversion to the standing stones, turn right here. For the standing stones, continue forward, ignoring all paths to the left and right (from this point it is an extra twenty minutes walking to the standing stones, plus an extra twenty minutes back, with a steep climb).
For the standing stones: The path will begin to descend. When you reach a tennis court, turn right, and after passing the length of the tennis court on your right hand side, go up some little steps into woodland. At the end of the trees, go through a gate and emerge into a large open landscape with a mixture of grass, bracken and tree planting. Continue forward along the side of the hill. As Lodge Farm comes into view in the far distance ahead of you, keep an eye out to the left of the footpath. The stones are about 25 metres off to the side of the path. Please note that the stones are not on open access land, so stopping for picnics, climbing on the stones etc is not permissible. Once you have had a quick look, please respectfully return to the public footpath. There is no public right of way to connect you to Hascombe Hill from the stones, so you will need to return the way you came to the footpath highlighted at the beginning of section two.
To continue around Hascombe Hill: Take the footpath as mentioned in section two at the top of Nore Lane. The path will take you upwards through trees. As you round the bend at the top of the hill, keep left and continue. This footpath will take you around the circumference of Hascombe Hill, where there was once an Iron Age hillfort. Look out for a log bench that provides a viewpoint out towards Dunsford Aerodrome, which has some surprisingly large aircraft on its runway. Ignore any paths leading left or right and stick with the same footpath.
The first time you will need to divert from this path is where there is a yellow footpath arrow tacked onto the end of a large log, followed by another arrow on a post. You should veer left here, beginning your descent from the hill.
After the path merges with another one coming from the other side of a clump of beech trees, continue straight and then veer right at the next fork. Watch out - it is quite easy to miss this and end up going left along a forestry track in the wrong direction! The correct path will soon become very rutted and muddy. If you re-route up the bank to avoid this, be aware you will have a bit of a climb down the bank to get back on track later. Either way, turn left when you reach the garage of Hascombe Place Farmhouse and continue back to the pub and the car park.
Do not miss St. Peter’s Church, which is a few metres along the dead end road by the pub. It has an utterly splendid alter, which is really quite ornate for such a small church. The village pond is just opposite the church and is a very pretty and peaceful place to sit.
Did you know?
The Stones were erected in the late nineties by modern-day-druid, Ivan McBeth. They weigh an average of nine tonnes and were built using stone from the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. Neo-pagans gather at the sight to mark important moments in the lunar calendar.
If you enjoyed this walk…
…try this one at Black Down, near Haslemere with another wooden hillside and great views.
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