Section 41
Binsted to Bentley
Walk Details
Walk Instructions
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 41 Out
Binsted to Bentley
Map: OS Explorer 144 Basingstoke, Alton & Whitchurch
Distance/Time: 4.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Binsted Inn (formerly TheCedars pub) and restaurant in Binsted.
Comments: A walk of considerable variety with farms, fields and trees, plus plenty of stiles. A small amount of roadwalking. Lots of changes of direction so never a dull moment, also changes in levels so some inclines to climb. This is tick country so please make a check after the walk.
With The Binsted Inn on your right, go back down the road to the second turning right, to Hay Place.
Do not turn down here, but go on a few paces further along the main road, then carefully cross to a wide entrance opposite. Go up here, to soon emerge into a field.
Bear right on an obvious farm track going off, across the fields, under power lines. Follow this for some way. Ignore a path going off right, and keep forward to pass a wood, on your right.
Enter a second field and drop down to the bottom right corner. Ignore the path going on, through a gap. Instead, turn left, along the bottom edge of the same field, with trees on your right.
Soon reach a stile in the far corner, and cross into the next field. Keep forward to a gate, and on, on a farm track beyond, up past a house, and down to a road.
Turn left on this road for 200 metres. Pass a farm on the right, then go steeply uphill. Near the top look for a double stile in the hedge on your right. Cross into the field and turn immediately right, along the fence on your right.
Keep along the edge of the field, around to a wide double stile, into the horse paddock beyond.
Cross this, slightly diagonally right, to a further stile, leading to steep steps down and then up, to cross a railway.
At the far side, cross a stile, into a field by an aerial. Go down the field edge, with trees on your left. At the bottom, cross a stile into an open, sloping pasture.
Go down, bearing just right of a low set house, to emerge onto a road, via a stile by wooden fieldgates and an oak tree.
Go forward, up the road, over a bridge with an interesting old cast iron weight restriction notice, then on up a steep hill.
By a charming stone farmhouse (which appears three storeys at the rear and two at the front), turn right off the road, and cross a stile into a field.
Follow along the field edge, with a hedge of trees on your right. Where this ends, bear diagonally right, down and across a field, to the far opposite corner (with white farm buildings beyond).
At this corner turn left, on a broad, grassy track, between hedges, to a road.
Cross straight over, to a gravel drive, and walk along to a stile in the wooden fence on your left, just before buildings.
Go up a grassy paddock to a double stile at the top. Over this, turn right, along the field edge. Drop down to a corner. Ignore a path going off left.
Cross a footbridge and stile beyond, into a field. Turn diagonally right, uphill, to soon reach a stile in the fence, on your right.
Cross and turn immediately left, to follow the fence on your left, to a metal kissing gate. Keep on to reach two stiles leading into a sloping pasture. Go on in the same direction, still following the fence on your left.
At the far end of the pasture, go left, over a stile, onto a grassy, enclosed path.
Follow this, up and around, to a drive, by a house on your right. Turn left along the drive, and follow it past more houses, to eventually reach a junction with a road. Turn left and cross over the A31.
Keep on the road, to reach a crossroads, before the Memorial Hall in Bentley. Turn right, and walk along to The Star Inn (once an Indian Restaurant but now a pub again), and the Village Shop, at the end of the section.
FOLKESTONE TO FARNHAM ROBUST RAMBLE
Section 41 Return
Bentley to Binsted
Map: OS Explorer 144 Basingstoke, Alton & Whitchurch
Distance/Time: 4.5 miles/2.5m hours
Start: The Star Inn Bentley
Comments: A shortish section in undulating country, initially close to the River Rother, so possibly muddy. A steady climb back up into Binsted. Expect stiles. A butterfly conservation area and possibly deer feeding in the fields. Bracken – check for ticks.
Set off with The Star and Village Shop on your left and industrial units the other side of the road. Just past these units, turn right, down a side road – Rectory Lane – between brick walls. Keep on past houses, to reach and cross a footbridge over the A31.
At the far side, ignore a stile on your left. Cross a roadway, by a site entrance on your left, and go across to a gap in a wooden fence.
Go forward on a path through trees, with works on your left. Soon turn right, over a footbridge, then left, along a field edge (ignore a stile on your right). Keep along by trees on your left, and a wire fence on your right.
At the end reach a broad track. Turn right down this, and in a short distance, reach a long footbridge over a river.
Cross the footbridge, and go over the water meadow beyond, to a stile just right of a house ahead.
Go onto a roadway beyond, for a short way. Where thgis roadway turns right, go straight ahead (ignoring a path off left) over a very old stile into woods.
Follow a path up to, and over a railway. At a junction of paths soon reached, go straight ahead, into a nature reserve. This is run by the Butterfly Conservation.
Follow a clear path, winding uphill, to the top of the reserve, and exit onto a track.
Go forward, passing an office block, down on your right. Soon emerge by houses. Here leave the roadway and enter an enclosed path on your left, going forward, along the edge of a wood.
At the top of a rise, by a wooden fence, meet a cross track. Do not turn, but cross over and on, into woods. Soon pass along an enclosed path, by a bungalow, to reach a road.
Bear right, a few paces, then cross to a gravel drive. Wind down, between houses, then head towards farm buildings.
Just before the farm buildings, go over a stile by a metal fieldgate. Turn sharp right, up along a fence, to a second stile, then on, to a third.
Cross this right into another field, then go diagonally left, to yet another stile. This leads to steps going down, then up the sides of an old railway. Cross a stile at the far side, into a large, upward sloping pasture.
Go forward, up to the very top of the field, to a wooden fieldgate, by the righthand corner of a wood. Cross a stile by the gate, and continue up a narrow, grassy space to a stile at the very top, where the wood ends.
Cross the stile and go on, across a large field. At the far side turn left, uphill, towards houses.
Before reaching them, turn right on a path, once again going down, and across, another large field, with a wood down on your right.
Eventually reach a farm track by power lines. Turn left on this (used on the outward route), and follow it down to a road.
Turn right along the road, to soon return to The Binsted Inn in the centre of Binsted.
