Bracknell Forest

Walk Details:
Date: 22/9/2004
Total ascent: 55m
Total distance walked: 2.76 miles
Walk difficulty: 2.5/10 (1/10 for the actual walking, an extra 1.5 for the navigation)
Enjoyment rating: 2/10
Best bits: Managing to find the top by sheer luck.
Worst bits: Paths not tying up with map, making navigation incredibly difficult. No views.

Top details:
Name: Surrey Hill
Number: 5 of 207
Grid reference: SU 88760 64000 MAP
Height above sea level: 130m/427ft
How nice was it?: 0.5/10 for the top, 2/10 for the ascent route
Description/Notes: Highest point in Bracknell Forest Unitary Authority

The Walk:

A strange one this.

We parked at St Anne's Church in Bagshot (which we immediately renamed "Stan's") and headed up Vicarage Road. Once again we were Justin-less - he'd been ordered home by his Mum to help them pack for their family holiday to Boston the next day! As we entered the woods that give this Unitary Authority its name, it was immediately apparent that we were going to be in a bit of trouble - there were a lot of paths and tracks on the ground that weren't shown on our OS pink Landranger map (even when I subsequently looked at the orange Explorer map, they weren't all shown).

At first, though, things went well. We headed up a long straight track through dense woodland, and despite numerous side-paths that weren't shown on the map, we managed to discover our correct turning quite easily, as it was the only one with three turnings off at the same time. This next path closely followed the map too, curving round and eventually coming to a T-junction.

We had actually hoped to turn left off this path slightly earlier and go direct to Surrey Hill. However, there were so many paths off to the left that we couldn't be sure which was the right one, & decided it would be safer to go to the T-junction at the end of the path, and then double back on ourselves to reach Surrey Hill. This was where it started to go a bit wrong.

According to the map, having turned left at the T-junction, there would almost immediately be another path doubling back to Surrey Hill. There wasn't, and in fact it looked like it was downhill quite a lot to the left. So we struck out to the right up what looked like the highest hill around (though it was hard to tell through all the trees.

We knew Surrey Hill would be quite easy to identify when we found it. According to the map it had one of the few clearings in the forest, plus a big raised reservoir. Having reached the top of a stiff climb through deep bracken, we didn't seem to be there. We were still surrounded by trees, and just in front of us there was a deep valley in front of another steep knoll - we wondered if that one was the elusive Surrey Hill.

At this stage we were very close to breaking our rule 1 ("No Quitting") by going home and not returning until we had a GPS system. We were loath to give up without a fight though, and decided we would give that other nearby knoll a try. As the valley sides in front of us looked a bit hairy, we decided we would try to find a less steep route around the edge of the valley and started to follow a nearby path.

Astonishingly, after only a few dozen metres we suddenly emerged into a clearing and there was the reservoir in front of us! We greeted our fifth county tops with wild whoops of joy, before realising that there was already a party of cyclists there, calming down and giving them affable nods.

To avoid the usual derisive laughter that seem occur when you take photos at an unassuming county top, we pretended to be stopping for a water break until they left. Then we started exploring the locality, before agreeing that a spoil heap opposite the reservoir was the highest point. There were, however, no views and the nearby reservoir made the top feel a bit abused & run down.

Now we just had to find our way back to the car - no easy task in this bewildering maze of tree-lined paths. The map said to head back down a broad track, past a radio mast, and then on reaching some power lines turn left to reach Church Lane, which would take us back to "Stan's" past a hotel where we hoped to get a celebratory drink.

Needless to say this didn't happen. We found and passed the radio mast easily enough (a strangely portly construct). We were passed by the cyclists several times in varying directions - I wouldn't be surprised if they were also lost!. The power lines were there too, and we turned left. It was quickly clear that this path did not lead to Church Lane - instead, after a bit of a hike, we came back to the long straight track on which we had started the walk.

Drinkless, we reflected that whilst we had only completed this one by luck, at least it meant that we would never have to return to this cursed forest again!