Section 13 Return
Stonegate to Etchingham
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 136 The Weald |
|---|---|
| Distance | 6 miles / 3.5 hours |
| Start | Stonegate Station (Paid parking if any available). |
| Comment | There are only the station services at Stonegate Station and charged parking in the station car park. Burwash village with pubs and shops is on this section. A longer walk than the outward section. Pleasant countryside but attention to maps and instructions is needed. Many stiles. Final mile into Etchingham is mostly on a country road. |
Walk Instructions
From Stonegate Railway Station walk up through the car park to a road. Turn left on the road, taking great care, for nearly half a mile (there are some walkable verges). Eventually cross Witherenden bridge and the River Rother. Look for a metal fieldgate into the field on the left. Go through and bear diagonally right across to another fieldgate in the hedge. Go through into a rising field and bear diagonally left up to an old stile by a metal fieldgate.
Here enter the top edge of a large hop garden and go along the top edge with the hops on the left and a hedge on the right. Keep on to the very end. Go on straight across a field to a footbridge and cross into a vast field.
Head diagonally right, uphill, to a wooden fieldgate by a pond in trees on the left. Keep on uphill in the field ahead with a fence on the left. Cross a stile at the top into a garden. Walk up the garden passing a pond on the left to a stile and soon another stile into the corner of a field.
Turn left up the side of the field with a wire fence on the left. At the top cross a stile by a wooden fieldgate and keep forward over an asphalt drive to a wooden fieldgate ahead. Go through to an orchard and continue with orchard on right and a fence on the left to a stile. Cross onto a narrow footpath going down a bank to a driveway by a house. Turn right on the drive and go downhill. Pass Mottynsden Farm Oast on the right and go through a metal fieldgate into a field.
Go down field to a footbridge at the bottom and cross to junction of paths. Here turn left to go along by the stream on the left. Keep the field edge to the corner ahead and a junction of paths by a cattle grid over a stream. Do not cross the cattle grid, but turn sharply right, away from the cattle grid across the corner of the field, up to a stile and broken footbridge into a wood.
Go forward through the wood to a stile at the top and cross into a steeply rising field. Go up the field bearing slightly right to the very highest point at the top (it is rather an irregularly shaped field). Aim for a metal fieldgate and cattle trough at the top. Just to the left of these is a wooden kissing gate. Go through and emerge onto a drive. Turn right on the drive and follow it all the way to pass a playing field at the end on the left and then to reach the Rose and Crown in Burwash.
Pass the Rose and Crown on the right and walk on to the main road through the village. Turn left and walk down to the parish church on the right. Enter the churchyard and go forward past the church tower and bear left on the asphalt path down the far side of the church.
At a Y-fork keep left and leave the main churchyard down stone steps. Keep forward on a gravel path with a hedge on the left and splendid views to the right. Where the gravel path ends at a garden gate, go on past a pond down on the right to a wooden kissing gate into a field.
Bear right across and down the field (currently set up for horse jumping) to the far bottom corner. Cross a stile into trees and wind down bearing left at the bottom to another stile into a field. Start off going along by the hedge on the left then bear away to the right to a gap in the hedge by a pond on the right. Go through into the next field.
Bear diagonally right across the centre of the field down to a stile by the far opposite bottom corner close to woods on the left. In next field bear diagonally left down to cross a stream and over a stile into a rising field. Bear diagonally right up to pass ponds on the left to a stile in the hedge beyond.
Cross and bear right downhill across a large pasture to a stile in the far opposite corner by a treeline on the left. Cross the stile and keep on by the fence on the left to a long footbridge crossing into a rising field. Go up to a stile by a metal fieldgate.
Cross this and bear left across field ahead to a further stile by a metal fieldgate. Cross this stile and bear right down a bank to cross a stream. Immediately turn left to follow the stream and trees on the left passing a white house up on the right and tennis courts. Reach a metal gate. Pass through and turn immediately right along the field edge.
In a short distance turn left down between horse paddocks. Near bottom of the hill turn right through a metal fieldgate and go down diagonally left to far bottom corner. Go through a metal fieldgate and cross a stream to a wooden fieldgate. Go through this and forward to a gap in the hedge at the far side of the field by a tree. Go through into the field beyond (there is a stile in the hedge but it is very overgrown).
Turn quite sharply right to go diagonally up a narrow pasture with a rough bank on the left (there is a reservoir behind it). At the end of the rough bank leave the field through a gap and keep on diagonally up to a hedge on the left. Follow the hedge along on the left to wooden poles supporting power lines. Go through a squeeze stile here and over a new footbridge. Go forward still by hedge on the left ignoring farm gateways into other fields, to far corner by a pond.
Leave the field through a rusty fieldgate by an oast and go up an enclosed path with a tall garden fence on the right. At the top turn left onto a vehicle drive and follow this out to a road. Turn right on the road for ½ mile. Where this meets a main road turn right and walk down into Etchingham village. Keep on to return to the parish church on the left and the start of the section.
