Section 14 Return
Mayfield to Stonegate Station
Walk Details
| Map | OS Explorer 136 The Weald |
|---|---|
| Distance | 5 miles/ 2 ½ hours |
| Start | The Carpenters Arms in Mayfield may be closed so start from the nearby Rose & Crown. Turn right along Fletching Street to the first turning left called The Avenue. This is the site of the Carpenters Arms with the footpath opposite. |
| Comment | A pleasant walk through fields and woods with stiles and possible growing crops. Hilly country means some good views. |
Walk Instructions
With the old Carpenters Arms behind cross the road to the turning opposite called The Avenue. Do not go along this road but instead go straight downhill, on a grassy track to a stile by a wooden fieldgate into a field.
Keep along the righthand side of the field to a stile hidden in the far right corner. Cross onto a long footbridge into a further field. Keep along by the fence and trees on the right towards a wooden fieldgate under powerlines directly ahead. Just right of the fieldgate is a stile in the corner.
Cross this stile and keep on by the hedge on the right to a stile in the next corner. Go steeply downhill, still by the fence on the right, to a gate in the bottom corner. Go on down through trees to a footbridge and then up to a stile into a rising pasture. Keep on up by the hedge on the left. At the top, exit onto a road over a stile by a wooden fieldgate (turn round to look at splendid views of Mayfield). Turn left on the road.
Continue for 200 metres. Where the road narrows between hedges and a house appears ahead, look for a footpath going off left by a stile. Turn down here on an enclosed path between a hedge and a fence heading towards houses on the skyline above. Emerge onto a road by pigsties.
Turn right and walk along past houses. Where the road swings right downhill, go forward on the righthand of three drives towards ‘Stoneycroft’. Stay on the track, downhill. In 100 metres, at a Y-fork, bear left downhill. After some distance pass a house on the left to reach another Y-fork. Bear right here.
Go on up then down a concrete slab track to reach an asphalt drive. Bear right on this. Where the drive swings right uphill, go forward on a bridleway through bluebell woods.
On reaching a gravel drive again bear right. At a T-junction with a road go straight across into woods on a feinter track. Keep on for some way. Near the end of the wood bear left downhill. At a Y-fork bear left, still downhill, to eventually cross a stream with a house over on the right and soon leave the wood and emerge onto a gravel track beneath power lines.
Turn right on this track. Soon pass a timber framed house on the right and bear left over a stone bridge. Across this bear right on a bridleway. Ignore paths going off left and keep forward to join an asphalt drive. This goes between farm buildings with a house up on the left. Finally pass garages on the left and keep forward on a raised grassy path along the top edge of the field under power lines to a gate.
Through the gate pass through trees to emerge onto a wide sandy farm track. Go forward on this and soon reach a road. Cross to a metal fieldgate into a pasture. Bear left up the pasture skirting the edge of a cottage garden on the left. At the top, bear right, parallel to a hedge some 25 metres away on the left, across to a metal fieldgate at the far side of the field. Through this gate follow the hedge on the right to the far end of the field. In the corner drop down to a stile onto a road.
Cross straight over to a gap in the hedge opposite and go on in the same direction with a hedge and trees on the left. On reaching the tallest tree, bear left away from the fieldedge over the field towards a farm (the path was lightly marked through the crops). At the far side find and cross a new stile and footbridge into the next field. Turn diagonally right down to a metal fieldgate.
Go through and bear diagonally left over a pasture to a wooden pole carrying power lines. At the pole, bear left, to follow the line of poles with a stream over on the right. Just before reaching the far end look for a broken stile on the right (there is a metal fieldgate just beyond). Cross and go along by the hedge on the left. Where this ends keep forward along a line of trees parallel with power lines on the left, to reach another stile and single plank footbridge.
Cross this and go forward to a brand new footbridge. Go straight on across the centre of the field ahead, still following poles to the far side. Here exit the field over a concrete bridge and go up the field ahead with a hedge on the right, towards a farm on the hill.
Only go up the field edge for about ten metres looking for a footbridge and stile in the hedge on the right. Cross into the adjoining field. Keep forward away from hedge bearing slightly left up towards the corner of hedge at the foot of the farm garden (if the path is not reinstated follow the edge of the field). The path then continues in the field parallel to the hedge on the left but about five metres away (if necessary follow the hedge all the way around the edge).
Eventually reach a stile in the hedge at the far side. Cross this and go up a bank to a drive. Go forward along this with a fence on the left and house on the right, down to a road. Turn left on the road for 100 metres. Just past a cottage on the right, turn right through a metal fieldgate and walk up towards trees. Go through a second fieldgate into a rising pasture. Cross diagonally left uphill to a metal swing gate at the far side and cross a footbridge over a railway line.
Follow up the field edge ahead passing a pond on the left to a metal fieldgate onto a gravel track. Turn left on this. At a Y-fork bear left and walk downhill to Stonegate Station and the beginning of the section.
