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Greater London (Former Top)Walk Details: Top details: The Walk: |
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Following directly on from Leith Hill, this was always going to be an anticlimactic top. I'd have liked to make more of it by combining it into a long walk with the Westerham Heights and Betsom's Hill tops, but unfortunately we didn't have the time, and Trigoholic Jim wanted to combine it with the Botley Hill trig point, in the opposite direction. We parked at the dubious-looking public car park above Titsey Place, and set off along a minor road to find a trig point. It was well hidden - we'd actually passed it, given up and were heading back before we discovered a gap in the hedge looked through, to see the trig point tucked up tight behind the hedge a little way further along the field edge.
This path seems to be much derided by long-distance walkers, mainly because it closely follows the route of the M25 and M20. At first I was inclined to agree with them - the path descended through gloomy woodland right next to the B269, and our ears were constantly assaulted by engine noise. Finally, though, the path turned away from the road up some steep steps and we emerged from the trees to a view which made up for the previous section. A glorious line of copper beeches stretched away down the hill, leading your eyes to a view across a broad valley to hills in the middle distance. Admittedly the M25 was there at the bottom of the valley, but with beech trees as stunning as these in the foreground it really didn't matter! This view was all too fleeting though, as the North Downs Way came to a narrow road which we turned on to and headed uphill a little more, before crossing the B2024 and joining another road which lead us to the reptile zoo. The county top was actually behind the reptile zoo, but we took the top photos here as it was the nearest real feature. It looked pretty run down, but though the signs were faded we were delighted to see the attraction featured "Beaver World" which for some reason best known to myself I renamed "Mutant Ninja Beaverworld". We turned turned onto a footpath heading left just after Mutant Ninja Beaverworld (that name does conjure up some frightening images now I come to think of it!). The path isn't easy to find, being narrow and overgrown - I was stung several times as we forced our way along it. The path soon emerged into open fields, where the former county top of Greater London was slightly up the field edge to the left. Returning to the footpath was difficult - it was so little used that it was difficult to see where it ran across the newly harvested field. The only way we could tell was that there was a strip with a very slightly higher proportion of weeds - obviously the path had been trampled down just enough whilst crops were growing to provide the weeds there with a bit more light. Fortunately this strip led to a stile where we emerged onto a very peaceful little lane which lead us up to a junction with the B2024 set on a sub-top of Botley Hill and surrounded with a smattering of radio masts. We then followed the busy B-road back to the car park and were relieved
to find the car still there and in one piece. Frankly Botley Hill was
a pretty unsatisfactory county top, and downright disappointing as a Marilyn.
I really wished we'd had enough time to spend longer on the North Downs
Way and link this top with the next two we were due to complete (Westerham
Heights and Betsom's Hill) - we may then have got some more nice views. |
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Having
found the trig point , we could now return to the serious business of
reaching the county top. Strangely we would now be descending to it -
apparently it lay on the former boundary of Greater London, near a reptile
zoo on the lower slopes of the hill. We headed back past the car park,
and then joined the North Downs Way.