National Cycle Route 22
Seale Church
Ride overview
Leaving the capital and riding through 60 kilometres of woodlands is as near to ‘forest bathing’ as you can be on a bicycle. The mainly off-road National Cycle Route 22 from London to Portsmouth Harbour is a feast of bosky light, rich woodland smells, some mud and gravel. In spring the woods are bluebell-filled, in summer 500 shades of green, in autumn an A-Z of colour and in winter a tapestry of greys and brown. King Herod with whom you’ll feast, twitchy thoroughbreds, shipwrights, sailors and the ghosts of the Pressgangs are likely companions, and you’ll probably play the game of imagining which of the many cottages you’d most like to live in. There’s no shortage of pubs and cafés and if you’d rather split the route into more manageable sections, there’s a good selection of old coaching inns still offering a night’s rest from the travails of the road. NCN22 is an ideal for a challenging mixed-terrain day ride or as an overnighter.
Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Banstead/Portsmouth DISTANCE: 138km TOTAL ASCENT: 1395m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: Mixed surfaces including firm bridleways and cycle tracks some of which can be challenging after heavy rain. FOOD: Compton; Watts Gallery, Shere; The Dabbling Duck, Farnham; Coffee Diem (lunches, coffee, cake etc) Buriton; The Five Bells, Portsmouth; The Old Custom’s House WHAT TO VISIT; Compton; Watts Gallery and Chapel, Idsworth; St Hubert’s Church, Portsmouth; The historic Dockyard, The Spinnaker Tower ACCOMMODATION: Dorking; The White Horse, Blackbrook House, Farley Green; Lockhurst Hatch* (campsite/glamping) Farnham;Teller’s Arms PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Regular trains to Waterloo from Dorking, Guildford, Farnham, Petersfield, Havant and Portsmouth Harbour LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: NCN 20, NCN 2, Surrey Cycleway
*WMWG tried and test recommendation based on quality. Not necessarily the cheapest but probably the best available in the locality
Ride Notes
To begin at the beginning, at a road junction opposite a church and riding the first six kilometres through dull suburbs on an unprotected bike lane, is best left for the purists, or those who have arrived at said junction by using the traffic-free cycle path Route 20, direct from the centre of London. Far better, is to take the train to Tattenham Corner, for when you leave the station the majestic Downs are laid out before you.
Epsom Racecourse
The grassy expanses of Epsom Downs are where thoroughbred horses have been trained and raced since at least the 1640s. Having come steeply up from Langley Vale, the racecourse curves around Tattenham Corner in a flurry of white rails and heads down the famous five furlongs to the grandstand. It is a true test of stamina for the three year old colts and fillies. You ride past the spot where on June 4 1913, Emily Davison attempted to place a banner on the King’s Horse as it ran around the bend in The Derby and was killed, becoming the first ‘martyr’ of the Suffragette Movement.
The gravel tracks and ‘rides’ webbing the Downs make for some superb cycling, however, it is very important to remember that this is horse country. The Downs are privately owned and bicycles, whilst permitted, are barely tolerated for they alarm the already highly strung thoroughbred horses. Please ride with great caution, reduce your speed and alert any jockey of your approach from behind. Best of all, stop to allow horses to pass. It’s tempting to ride fast downhill on the gravel track leading from the top of the race course into Langley Vale, but please bear the caution in mind.
Langley Vale
The bottom of Langley Vale is squidgy even in the height of summer. From late autumn until mid spring, it is a challenging and muddy few metres unless you are riding a horse. Continuing out of the Vale on a bridlepath known as Sheep Walk, you join a series of small lanes which take you up and over the North Downs to Dorking and onwards to Guildford. The riding is exquisite: heavily wooded steep banks fold down to the road, flint-stoned cottages in clearings, noble oaks and ghostly stems of ash trees that have succumbed to the murderous ash die back disease.
The cycle track alongside the A24 to Dorking is one of the UK’s first cycle lanes, built in 1935. The route takes you past Denbies, the UK’s largest vineyard. The town is pretty at dawn when the streets are not clogged with traffic, so stick to the well-signed cycle path through the quieter parts of town and onto a combination of narrow lanes and paths running along the Titchbourne valley.
Jack the Hammer, Abinger Hammer
The dense woods of Surrey provided charcoal for the iron furnaces which populated the area during the 16th and 17th centuries. The iron stone came from the Weald in Sussex, and the fast rivers flowing off the Downs provided the power for the forges. The name of Abinger Hammer recalls the area’s former industrial past. As you ride through the village on a shared path, note the figure of "Jack the Blacksmith", who strikes the hour with his hammer. Under the clock you’ll see the motto "By me you know how fast to go".
More woods, narrow lanes and a few sections of rideable sandy bridleways take you to the outskirts of Guildford. You ride through a succession of pretty villages, some of which can be victims of their own beauty. Avoiding weekends on this section means a quieter ride. At Birtley Green, you join the Downs Link, a former railway linking Guildford to the coast. It’s a smooth ride alongside the former Wey and Arun Canal, which was part of a canal network designed to link London to Portsmouth.
Guildford High Street
On a shared path, you ride into the centre of Guildford, which has one of the most attractive pedestrianised High Streets in the land. Cobbled and rising steeply up a hill, it is lined with old coaching inns. Nearby is one of the few remaining square keeps in England, and even after a thousand years, you rather feel that Guildford is still under its protection. A steep and relatively short haul out of the city has to be negotiated, before a well-surfaced track takes you along the Hog’s Back with far-reaching views across southern England.
The section between Guildford and Farnham is quintessential Surrey; quiet and narrow lanes through visually idyllic villages, past vineyards, hop farms, ancient churches, grassy fields, and of course the ever-present woods filled with oak, ash, yew and holly.
Farnham, whose historical wealth and status came through its corn market, makes for a good half-way stop. The Bishops of Winchester thought so too, as they had their half-way quarters (a castle) on the hill above the town. Due to the town being an important crossroads the streets are busy, but the cycle route through the town avoids the worst.
NCN 22, near Liss
From Farnham to Havant, you’ll be riding in The South Downs National Park, Englands newest Park. The woody theme continues as you pedal into the Alice Holt Forest, a former Royal Forest which was a key supplier of oak for the Royal Naval ships. Conifers have replaced many of the oaks. Much of the surrounding area continues to be linked to the defence of the realm, with shooting ranges, army training areas and camps all nearby.
The route quickly guides you through Petersfield, another of Southern England’s formerly pretty old market towns made aesthetically poorer by a combination of unimaginative town centre architecture and too many vehicles. Better to continue onwards, and should you need to stop, make for the village of Buriton some 5km further along. The village has many of the attributes that you would wish for in a village: cottages, some rather grand with rose-filled gardens, a large pond, a church with an imposing tower and The Five Bells, much loved and used by South Downs Way walkers as well as cyclists using Route 21.
St Hubert’s Church, Idsworth
A steep climb takes you up into the chalky hills from where you have the first glimpse of the sea. It’s not quite downhill for the next 35km, but as good as. The riding is glorious on a country lane, surrounded by the softly moulded hills of the South Downs. In the middle of a field, well away from the village of Idsworth which is serves, is the church of St. Hubert’s, a Grade 1 Listed Building which dates from at least 1053. Inside are some well-preserved wall paintings. Here, you have a hairy hermit who resolved to walk on all fours until he was forgiven for his inchastity and below him is a confounded looking Herod being presented with the head of John the Baptist. There are hunting dogs, feastings and a chap being hurled into prison by a warden with the most extraordinary nose. Everyone is depicted in their uni-sex medieval dresses looking perturbed, surprised, shocked, delighted or with that look of ‘I’ve seen it all before’ glazed across their face.
After a quickish weave through Rowland’s Castle and Havant, you arrive at the liminal lands of the south coast. After the rounded hills, the scenery changes from vertical tree lines into a horizontal seascape. Colours move to ‘English Channel grey’, the creeks vivid green, made so by seaweed and algae. If you’ve ridden the whole route as a day ride, the evening sun will be stilling the day with its softer shades of light. A mix of industry and nature reserve, of chimneys and the cries of gulls escort you as you ride towards the journey’s end.
Portsmouth Skyline from the Solent
Arriving in Portsmouth, you are coddled into England’s naval history. The masts, yards and rigging of HMS Warrior and Victory. Sea-grey naval vessels, and long dead admirals. Memorials to Marines, fortresses, walls and cannons and bay-windowed pubs lining cobbled lanes. With a squint of an eye you could imagine having to dive into an alleyway to avoid the prowling press gangs and with eyes wide open you see the resplendent modernity of England’s premier naval base, towering literally above the city: The Spinnaker. The route finishes at the pier head, beside the railway terminus and port.
Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.
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