Walks from East Grinstead

Beginner-friendly: This short walk is nearly all National Trust territory and signposted. If you want to make it even shorter and simpler, just skip the detour through the woods. The lunch stop is a simple café, so no messing around with booking a table in advance. Extensive woodland. Mostly secluded.

Standen House

Time: 2h30–4h30

1 lunch spot: Standen House café (1h–2h in)

Source: Trains2Green.

A Sussex loop of fields, woods and lakes, past Gravetye Manor, Stone Farm Rocks, the Bluebell Railway and Weir Wood Reservoir.

Woodland: a third under tree cover.

Gravetye Manor: An Elizabethan manor and gardens at the heart of the Gravetye Estate.

Stone Farm Rocks: Dramatic sandstone rock formations popular with local climbers.

The Bluebell Railway: A preserved steam railway whose whistle accompanies much of the walk.

Time: 4h–7h30

Warnings: Hilly; can be very muddy in winter and early spring.

Walk details: Walking Post (tips, photos and local insights).

Hilly Wealden countryside, pasture, woods, ancient houses and quaint hilltop old town.

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Hills, streams, ponds, heaths, mixed woodland rich in bluebells and wood anemones, pastures and heathery commons with South Downs views.

Time: 7h30

Warnings: Mud and flood prone.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Gentle wooded hills, muddy farm tracks, landscaped gardens, reservoir shoreline, open fields and woodland paths.

Time: 5h

Warnings: Can be very muddy.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Recommended: Some of the best High Weald landscapes; A great walk; A fabulous walk for wild garlic. A strenuous 19.5km High Weald hike with plenty of ups and downs, mostly on footpaths and bridleways across small fields and through woodland, following the High Weald Landscape Trail for much of the way, around Ardingly Reservoir and via Weir Wood Reservoir. Several kissing gates, footbridges and a boardwalk, no stiles; muddy and wet in places and spectacular for wild garlic and bluebells. Follows the High Weald Landscape Trail, passing Ardingly and Weir Wood reservoirs. Ardingly and West Hoathly offer pubs and public toilets; a short detour reaches Standen (National Trust, café and WC) and Wakehurst (part of Kew). MetroBus 84 and 222 intersect the route.

Woodland: two fifths under tree cover.

Time: 5h30–11h

Lunch: A bakery at Ardingly for bacon baps, and coffee at the Kingscote Vineyard shop.

Warnings: Muddy and wet in places, with possible fallen trees after storms. Take particular care on the road crossing coming into West Hoathly. A small stream runs down the path below Philpotts Manor School (dries only in high summer).

Walk details: Slow Ways.

About half the route is alongside roads, much of it quiet or private lanes and with the middle four miles mostly through fields and farms and a clearly-set path through Jules Wood. There are uphill sections of mud through the woods and some high stiles.

Time: 3h30–7h

Warnings: Sections of mud on the uphill woodland paths after rain. A river bridge near Ockhams has heavily worn steps up to the fields that need care, especially when wet. Some stiles are high.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Combines shorter morning through historic town and fields with longer afternoon along reservoir and past Standen.

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Source: A variant of East Grinstead Circular – the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Weir Wood Reservoir edge, road section, viewpoints, woods and Wealden countryside.

Warnings: Road section with traffic.

Source: A longer variant of East Grinstead Circular – the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Short circular through Wealden countryside to National Trust house and garden.

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Source: A variant of East Grinstead Circular – the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).