The Stepping Stones Walk at Box Hill

Box Hill in the North Downs is renowned for its panoramic views and for cyclists, its iconic climbs. Owned and managed by the National Trust, the popular beauty spot lies within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There are several walks you can undertake at Box Hill and we’ve mostly gone for the Nature Play Trail which POD loves as it’s a lot of fun. As she’s got older we’ve been able to explore a bit more with the circular hilltop stroll another favourite. There are several other trails available (from the gentle to the strenuous) but one walk in particular has eluded us thus far – the stepping stone walk. I’ve been itching to do it for ages but with 275 steps to get to the stones, we figured it would be too much for five year old POD.

So early one morning, having heard it takes about an hour, I headed off camera in hand to check it out. It’s well signposted and there are maps available so it’s an easy to follow route. The views from Salomons Memorial are pretty special, you can see the River Mole and on a clear day you can see for miles. The steps are just a little further along on the left – they start off fairly wide but can be steep on occasions so I took it slow at times. I can be a bit clumsy so better to be safe than sorry especially with an SLR swinging round my neck! It didn’t take long to reach a fork in the path where you can either go straight ahead to the stones or right towards the footbridge.

Although I knew the stones would most likely be covered at this time of year, I was keen to have a look. It’s such a beautiful little spot, very little noise either other than the sound of the river and a few birds singing. I’m itching to cross those stones now but that will have to wait. Instead I walked along the path next to the river, passing snowdrops as I went, up to the footbridge. It’s glorious here, again being so early meant I pretty much had the area to myself, with the exception of a couple of dog walkers. I do like that although nothing beats POD’s squeals of delight when we’re out as a family.

The footbridge leads to Burford Meadow where there is a wooded chalk cliff known as the Whites. It’s a magnificent part of the walk and such a contrast to the coming down the steps as they’re lined with beautiful yew trees on both sides. Thankfully this walk doesn’t entail walking back up the 275 steps although I did realise at this point I’d have to walk back up at some point. The flat of Burford Bridge on the other side of Burford Meadow was a welcome relief.

I ended up joining the wide grassy path at the bottom instead of mid way up although it was great exercise for my legs and the views were quite staggering. You’d get really fit doing this walk on a regular basis, sadly I’m not so I took it slowly although I did get distracted by the views! At the top of the grassy path I continued upward then took a left towards a former military fort. The old fort is one of 13 built in the 1890’s to protect London from invasion. It’s not open to visitors and inhabited by bats who are a protected species in the UK. Having made it back to the cafe, the final stop was a quick sit down with a coffee and a snack before heading home. Just glorious!

Linking up with Heledd at Running in Lavender for #MyCapturedMoment