Section 11 Out
Bodiam to Robertsbridge
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 136 The Weald |
|---|---|
| Distance | 5 miles/2 ½ hours |
| Start | The Castle Inn by Bodiam Bridge. Car Parks for the castle visitors available but possible charge. |
| Comment | A pleasant walk through fields and woods. Some stiles and a little road walking. The crossing of the A21 to reach Robertsbridge needs care and patience. |
Walk Instructions
With The Castle Inn on your left, walk past the front of the building and turn left on the driveway going down to the inn car park. Pass the car park on your left and continue forward on the drive passing a playing field on the left. Walk along this drive for ¾ mile. Ignore all turnings off to the right. Cross two stiles by metal fieldgates.
Eventually reach a metal fieldgate across the drive, by industrial buildings at New House Farm. Ignore a conservation walk going off along a grassy path on the right. Instead go through the gate and continue forward on the road through the business units. At the end pass a new building on the right. Just before a car park turn left off the road over a footbridge. Go forward along the edge of the lake on the left.
At the far side by a wooden fence, enter an enclosed path in trees. Soon cross a stile into a field. Turn right to a second stile by a metal fieldgate into a pasture. Go straight across to a stile by a wooden fieldgate at the far side. Emerge onto a road with care. Cross to a stile opposite.
This leads into a field. Turn sharp left uphill to a corner. Here turn right and follow a line of trees along the field edge to a stile and footbridge in the hedge at the far side. Cross into a large pasture.
Go straight ahead aiming for the highest point of the pasture. In midfield pass a stand of trees on the left concealing a pond. Keep straight on in the same direction to a stile in the hedge at the far side.
Here ignore a path going off left and go into the field ahead and keep straight across, well left of a farmhouse, under power lines, to a broken stile at the end of a thick belt of trees. Cross and go forward between ponds, to go on along a field edge with the belt of trees on your left.
At the far end of the field cross a stile onto a country road. This is Bourne Lane. Turn left on the road for some way. Ignore the first footpath on the left by a house (rather difficult to see anyway). After passing a side road coming in on the left, look for a footpath going off left, just past Jollie’s Farmhouse. Cross a stile and go forward into an enclosed path.
Soon cross a broken stile and go on down through trees, between ponds. Keep on down in the same direction over several stiles. On crossing a high stile to the right of a metal fieldgate, enter the top corner of a steeply sloping pasture. Turn right down the edge of this field with a treeline and fence on the right. At the bottom cross a stile, footbridge, then steps into a rising field. Turn left a few paces to a corner. Here turn right and walk directly away from the stream, up by an old ditch to a large oak tree and wire fence at the far side of the field (do not drop down into the field on the left across the ditch).
At the oak tree turn left and follow the fence on the right down to a corner. Cross a stile and footbridge in trees, and go on up into a rising field. Follow the hedge on the right to a stile into a further field. Go on up toward an oast and stables. At the top of the field enter an enclosed path and follow it out onto a road.
Turn right for 100 metres looking for a footpath on the left. Turn off the road through a metal fieldgate and go forward with trees and a fence on the left. Pass concrete rubble to go down to the bottom corner.
Go on along the edge of the next field down to a stile by a metal fieldgate. Cross the drive beyond to a wooden fieldgate and enter a rough pasture. Go down to a stile onto the A21 main road.
Cross with care and turn right a short way to a drive on the left. Turn up here and go steeply uphill. At the top follow the drive sharp left (ignore a stile going into the field ahead). Just before a bungalow, bear left into an enclosed path. Soon cross a stile by a wooden fieldgate. Go down and enter the field ahead through a metal fieldgate. Keep on down the field to the corner ahead with a hedge on the left. Cross a stile into a woodland. Go forward along the top of the wood. At the far side cross a footbridge and bear right down the side of the wood to the bottom.
Here bear left along by a canal style cut on the right. Pass a large derelict mill site on the left and emerge onto a road. Turn right on the road, for some way, up into Robertsbridge. Eventually reach the Seven Stars pub on the left and the end of the section.
