Route Included after Descriptive section

We first met on a walk from Groombridge with a group of the Ramblers Association. The lunch stop was at the Dorset Arms, formerly an Elizabethan farmhouse called "Somers." Louise remembers that they did a good line in filled rolls. Plenty of ham and salad etc. We started this walk from the pub, after a light meal. In case you're interested, they don't do the rolls any more. Food is still served in substantial portions, though not equalled in quality. The rolls have been substituted by sandwiches, made with rather nondescript bread. Most of the beers are Harveys. I had a pint of Broadside (can't remember which brewery), but thought it tasted a bit chalky.

Harvesting was well underway nearby as we left the Dorset Arms. The combine harvester was followed by a dust cloud which spread around the country. The effects of barley dust are itchy eyes and irritation in the throat and chest. It's best to avoid the harvesters if you can.

This whole area was owned by the Sackville family, who were the Dukes of Dorset. The first Duke in the family was Thomas Sackville (1536-1608), who was also a poet.

Just down the road from the pub is a beautiful Elizabethan cottage. All over this walk there are some wonderful old properties.

Further on, we passed Hunt farm, which has a delightful old wooden dutch barn and nearby, a round brick built dovecot with a stout oak door. All the buildings, including the farmhouse appear to be from the Elizabethan era.

It was a good time to be walking. The blackberries are in season and we came across some good crops after Hunt farm, particularly under a deer stalker's high seat, by an ancient oak.

In a dip past the high seat, the view to the left reminded me of a pastoral scene from one of the Old Masters.

Further on we stumbled on Cherry Garden farm, a pick your own enterprise, with orchards dripping with ripe plums. There were also good crops of sloes (prunus spinosa) around too.

We found a dead fallow deer calf beside the road. It was killed the previous night and had fresh wounds on it's legs. No doubt a victim of the road.

Later on we followed the High Weald Landscape Trail through a timeless valley, wandering beside a crystal stream. The Trail crosses the drive to Penns in the Rock, once the property of the family of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, USA.

Talking of rocks, beside a tiny meadow, there is a wild, but stylised garden, complete with wooden bridge and a folly in the guise of a white stone Greek temple. In the field above that, are fascinating outcrops of green sandstone. They are contorted, weathered and jumbled. To add to the imagination, trees grow on and through them. One outcrop looks like a throne, with it's ancient retainer, the base of a long dead oak, wrapped around its back.

Wandering through Park Farm we came on Park Oast, unusually, with a base built of stone. Most are built of red brick.

Buckhurst Park is typical parkland of the aristocratic variety, with ornamental lake, ancient beech and well mown grass lawns.

It's very easy to let your mind drift back in time and imagine the landscape little changed, but populated by folk who purposefully maintained it and lived off it's bounty. Everywhere you look, there are signs of their industry, in buildings, water courses, hedges and woodlands. They left behind a priceless legacy.

Map: OS Explorer 135

From the Dorset Arms, turn right on the B2110 and follow the road until you reach a junction on the left signposted to Balls Green.

Keeping to the right of this road, you come to the village of Balls Green. After the first house on your right, turn right into the cul-de-sac and near the end, follow a footpath on the right.

At a junction of paths, take the path across the field in a south-easterly direction. This brings you to a stile in the corner of the field. Continue over the stile through a narrow shaw to cross another stile a few metres away.

Continue in the same direction to another section of the B2110.

Cross the road and go over a stile to the right of the gateway. From there, go half left about 35 metres to the left of a solitary oak.

Here you keep to the left of the hedge and follow it until you reach another stile with a slide contraption to allow dogs through. Continue in the same direction through a tiny field to Hunt's farm.

Keeping to the right hand hedge, a couple of ancient oaks point the way to the farm drive just beyond.

Cross the drive via another of those dog stiles to a footpath to another field.

Keep on this heading through the next field to reach a small gap in a hedge, which continues ahead through a plum orchard and a strawberry field. This takes you to the drive of Cherry Gardens farm.

The drive soon meets the B2188, where you turn right. After 50 metres, take a broad track on your left signposted to Groombridge and next to house signs for Wyke End and Falconfield.

At the entrance to a property called Broomfield enter a field to your left via a gap in the fence and continue along the boundary fence beside Broomfield.

This meets a broad track where you turn left. You soon come on a terraced pair of cottages painted red with three windows each upstairs. Enter the field on your right, keeping to the right hedge as you descend. When the hedge runs out, aim for the left of a rough line of oak trees.

Going through a leafy tunnel of trees, you enter a lane and turn right. After 20 paces, cross a stile on your left and follow a path downwards through tall ferns.

At the bottom, cross a stream via a wooden footbridge and then a stile into a meadow.

Follow the tiny stream by the right hand fence. This is the High Weald Landscape Trail.

Soon you come to a wooden gate by palings. Cross the footbridge into woodland, turn left and follow the path.

When you reach a metalled lane, continue on, but another 20 paces after, turn left and go downhill to cross another footbridge. Cross a stile into a small field. There are three gates, of which you should head for the middle one at the top of the field.

Over this stile, continue ahead through a beech wood and parkland views before crossing a stile into a field. Keep going ahead, noting the huge jumbled outcrop of green sandstone to your right.

Follow an untidy line of birch trees to reach an oak squeeze stile. Pass through that and continue in the south easterly direction with the hedge on your right.

Through a gap into the next field, take a few paces and then turn right at a post and go through a metal kissing gate. Follow the left of the field, passing a roofless brick building and enter a tiny enclosure via a gate.

Here you turn right and follow the drive through the buildings of Park Grove.The drive straightens out and lined by horse chestnuts, joins a minor road through two cylindrical stone gateposts. Turn left at the road and enter a field on your right via a squeeze stile. Follow a line heading west. Cross a stile and continue downhill aiming to the left of a well manicured garden.

A short track then takes you to a field, where you follow the right hand fence. Cross a stile into a copse and continue ahead.

The way through the copse is well signposted. When you come to a stilecross over and turn right, next going over a plank footbridge and then another footbridge. Follow the left hand boundary of the field.

At the end of this field, you come to a metalled lane. Turn right into the lane and follow it to the B2188 again.

Cross straight over the road and follow a woodland path which curves left to cross another stile. Here you turn right. The path bends to the left and you soon come to a stile on your right leading into a garden. Ignore the stile and continue ahead to cross another stile.

Continue ahead towards the corner of a copse. Ignore the footpath sign painted on a large metal trough.

When you reach the corner, ignore the stile on your right and head slightly left. About 30 metres to the left of the right hand border of the field cross a stile and turn left, walking on a broad track on the edge of woodland.

At the end of this track, you come to a metalled drive in parkland. You are in the fine grounds of Buckhurst Park. Turn right along the lane, passing an ornamental lake on your right. The private sections are well marked.

The drive takes you past a lovely white-tiled cottage with a spring-head to the left and later, a cricket pitch on the right.

Soon you see the arched windows of the Dorset Arms ahead. At the end of the drive, turn right to the start, a few metres away.