Start point:- TQ239502
Distance:- 10.2 km; 6.34 miles
Time taken 2 hours 20 minutes
Route:-
| Reigate Heath CP - Ivy Cottage - Dungate's Lane - Buckland - Glebe House - Dawcombe Wood - NDW - Greensand Way - Flanchford Road - CP |
I had not walked from Reigate Heath since early 2014. The walk crosses the golf course and runs past the windmill on to Ivy Cottage.
Reigate Heath is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), one of the most important wildlife designations nationally and a Local Nature Reserve (LNR). It is an important example of the lowland heath habitat, including the heather and acid grassland.
The site also has a number of Bronze Age burial mounds (3-5000 years old) which have been designated Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
In the Bronze Age, the Heath was largely clear of trees. Around this time, a cemetery was established on the Heath; the burial mounds (tumuli) are still visible today.
file:///C:/Users/MarkJBurden/Downloads/Reigate_Heath_Archaeology_and_Historic_landscape.pdf
Buckland is an attractive village parish recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The Parish boundary is 2 miles from north to south, and about 1.5 miles east to west (Map). Buckland is the eastern most parish in Mole Valley with around 250 homes and a population of c.600.
Buckland’s village green and pond are at the heart of the parish’s Conservation Area and the North Downs escarpment in Buckland is within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The North Downs Way, Pilgrim’s Way and Greensand Way long distance footpaths all pass through Buckland. http://www.bucklandsurrey.net/
The walk will pass Buckland windmill with full details and history on the above website.
Dawcombe nature reserve This is probably one of the most species-rich chalk grassland reserves is Surrey. Situated on chalk scarpland with thick patches of hawthorn scrub, mostly in the bottom of the valley.
The open areas are managed as chalk downland and include spotted, fragrant, pyramidal, fly, man, bee and greater butterfly orchids in addition to a rich variety of typical chalkland plants. Much of the conservation work concentrates on scrub clearance which is necessary to maintain and increase the chalk downland habitat.
A good area of woodland stretches from the north-west to the south-east of the reserve as a wide strip on the top of the scarp and marked as Dawcombe Wood on the OS map. This is mainly of beech and ash with field maple, whitebeam, hazel and spindle and extends to the North Downs Way on the east side.
Both woodland and open grassland are rich in insects especially butterflies. Other invertebrate groups such as spiders, harvest-spiders, mites, millipedes, centipedes, woodlice etc are well represented.
Over 56 species of birds have been recorded on the reserve. Common lizard, slow-worm, fox, badger and rabbit regularly inhabit the reserve and roe deer are also common.
Dawcombe reserve hosts many trees up to 600 years old and a project was announced in 2013 to protect these trees. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-22693777
The walk follows the North Downs way at the foot of the scarp slope the path can be slippery and muddy after rain as it runs on chalk soils.
You will pass Colley Hill mine.
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/Colley-Hill-Hearthstone-Mine-Sandstone-Mine/
The hearthstone mine was worked from ca. 1900 to 1961. Worked in the Upper Greensand beds of the Upper Cretaceous. Stone was extracted in lumps up to 12 inches across, and either crushed to powder, cut to smaller sizes, or remoulded into artificial blocks. Hearthstone was sold as a domestic agent for whitening stone hearths, doorsteps and sills. Hearthstone is an unusual rock which technically is not a true sandstone. The last mine to close in Surrey.
National trust have a self guided walk covering sections of my walk
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/reigate-hill-and-gatton-park/trails/margery-wood-to-the-yew-tree-pub-walk
Picking up the Greensand Way and returning to the car park after crossing the A road from Dorking to Reigate
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