(S) From the main entrance to Merstham Station veer right, past the entrance to the car park, into Station Road North and using the pavement on the right hand side.
After 140 yards turn left to cross the road and take the footpath down the left hand side of the Old Fire Station. This leads through a car park and comes out onto High Street, next to the Feathers Hotel. Crossover High Street / A23, with great care, using the traffic bollards. Once across turn right into Quality Street staying on the left hand side pavement.
(1) After just 20 yards turn left, signed North Downs Way, onto a lane towards Merstham Cricket Club. Bear right at the club's car park and continue on a path with the cricket pitch on your left. Follow the path across Reigate Hill Golf Course and continue west, ignoring paths off to both sides.
(2) After another 640 yards cross a tarmac road and past a golf tee to your right hand side. After 60 yards go through a wooden kissing gate onto an enclosed path, and still heading west. In 350 yards, this path joins the driveway to a large house (at 1 mile), then after 60 yards veer left then right and out to a T-junction with Rocky Lane.
(3) Turn right along the road. After 110 yards, and where the lane turns sharp right, go straight on and enter Gatton Park at North Lodge. You have now entered the grounds of The Royal Alexandra and Albert School.
Continue along the road into Gatton Park and after 200 yards, at a mini-roundabout, turn right. Follow the road as it veers left, with school buildings to your left hand side and playing fields to your right. After 450 yards and shortly after passing the last building, at triple fingerpost, follow the road as it starts to veer right, signed North Downs Way.
(4) After another 320 yards, and just before a house (Tower Lodge Cottage), turn left onto a bridleway, signed North Downs Way. After 400 yards, at a Y-junction of paths stay left following the North Downs Way. In another 370 yards veer right at the fork, then 80 yards later stay straight on. After 100 yards another path joins from the right, stay straight on. The path soon turns left to a road (Wray Lane).
(5) Cross straight over and veer left, skirting the car park to your right hand side. After 100 yards veer right and uphill towards a wooden hut (cafe) DO NOT follow the lower path. Immediately before the café veer left on a path and uphill to cross a footbridge over a road (A217). Continue straight on along the NDW - it's wide and it's well marked. 0.75 miles after the footbridge the path emerges, through a gate, onto the open ground next to what looks like a small circular temple (at 3.1 miles).
(6) Continue straight on keeping the circular structure to your left and still following the NDW. Continue to follow the NDW along the top of the ridge for 950 yards ignoring paths off to both sides. Go through a wooden gate and continue west along the bridleway for 280 yards, then out onto a tarmac lane.
(7) Turn left along the lane signed North Downs Way for just a very short distance, then turn very sharp right, (opposite a coal post to your left hand side and Mole Place in front), onto an enclosed signed bridleway between trees and a fence (DON'T MISS IT). It is at this point we divert from the NDW as it continues straight on and downhill.
The bridleway crosses a private lane and then, after 600 yards, out onto a private residential road. Cross straight over the road (Buckland Heights), onto a bridleway to the right hand side of the entrance drive to last house. Continue straight on along this bridleway for 800 yards (ignoring a path off to the right after 600 yards). The path then veers left and soon turns sharp left and downhill, fenced and with a field to the right
(8) On reaching a T-junction of paths, at the bottom of the field, turn right. Follow the enclosed path along the bottom of the field and eventually into a wood. Follow this path as it turns right then left to weave its way through the woods (at 5 miles). After 550 yards and on reaching a T-junction with a sunken track, turn right and uphill along this old wooded track.
In a short distance the track soon levels out and after 450 yards opens out with a bridleway going off to the left. Turn left onto this bridleway. You are now heading west with a wood to your right and some buildings through a fence to your left. After 300 yards, and 100 yards before reaching a road, turn right onto another bridleway through the woods and going north-west.
(9) In 70 yards the path comes out onto the Dorking Road (B2032). Cross straight over (with care) and onto an enclosed bridleway through trees (Tye Lane - signed public bridleway). Follow Tye Lane for 400 yards ignoring paths off to the right. Then follow as it turns left (west) and past public bridleway "Banstead 636" to your right (now at 6 miles into the route). Continue along Tye Lane for a further 600 yards then turn left onto a path/bridleway going west. After 310 yards this leads to a road (Headley Common Road).
(10) Cross straight over Headley Common Road past a fingerpost and through a gap in a wooden fence and turn left and through a gate (at 6.7 miles). Once through the gate, turn left along a bridleway. Soon take the right fork. Follow the track straight on and eventually past two ponds.
After passing the 2nd pond (at 7.1 miles) ignore the next three tracks coming in from the right, but at the first cross tracks turn right (at 7.25 miles). The path falls slightly to the next junction where you take the track to the left. The track continues through the woodlands and goes downhill.
At the bottom of the dip take the left-hand fork and keep to that track, ignoring the tracks which cross it. Eventually, follow the track as it swings and drops sharply, then as it rises and then forks, take the left-hand fork following the Box Hill Hike. Follow the track to and through a gate (gate 23) onto a road (at 8 miles).
(11) Turn left along the road. Almost immediately the road forks, take the right-hand fork (Headley Heath Approach). Continue straight on for 800 yards to the junction with Box Hill Road. Cross straight over Box Hill Road and onto a tree-lined bridleway. After 250 yards the North Downs Way (NDW) joins us from the left.
(12) Continue straight on and downhill along the NDW (follow the acorns and the fingerposts) for 300 yards, then turn sharp right and up a long flight of steps and still on the NDW. At the top take the right fork, signed NDW. We follow the NDW for the next mile to the viewpoint on Boxhill. There are a few twists and turns. After another 420 yards follow NDW left down steps and then right at the bottom (at 9.1 miles).
After another 420 yards up a few steps and stay on NDW, avoiding the path to left. Then soon another set of steps. In another 250 yards the path goes through a wooden gate and out onto a clearing with great views to your left hand side. After 120 yards, through another wooden gate and back into the woods.
(13) Stay straight on along the NDW for 320 yards ignoring paths crossing our route. Then at a T-junction, turn right, and take the right fork leading up to the famous viewpoint at Leopold Salomons Memorial.
NOTE: It's here we leave the North Downs Way for the last time in this stage. We'll re-join it during the next stage above Denbies Vineyard.
From the viewpoint veer right on a path going gradually uphill in a north-westerly direction, soon parallel to the road. As the road turns right, and before reaching the cafe/visitor centre, stay left to follow a bridleway, soon past the gate to Swiss Cottage.
(14) After 180 yards follow the path as it turns right (at 10 miles), avoid paths going off to the left. Soon past the grave of Major Labelliere. Continue along the path. It gets chalky and loose, so watch your footing. Stay straight on avoiding a path off to your right and forks leading off to the left.
(15) On approaching the bottom, a wooden gate, to the right, leads down to the junction of Zig Zag Road and Old London Road. Do not descend to the road instead turn left onto a path along the grass, running parallel to and above Old London Road.
The footpath soon goes through some trees and then, at the last opportunity (after 300 yards) turn right and descend to Old London Road. Cross over the road (with care) and turn left along the pavement. Then as soon as a pavement appears on the other side, cross back over and turn right past the Burford Bridge Hotel (at 11 miles).
(16) After passing the hotel stay left along the pavement running parallel to the dual carriageway (A24). Follow the pavement along the A24 soon to cross over the River Mole at Burford Bridge. After another 100 yards descend and go through the subway to cross under the dual carriageway. Exit the subway to the left and cross over Westhumble Street, then turn right and through the village, soon past the aptly named Stepping Stones Pub.
(17) Follow the road, straight through the Westhumble village, for 380 yards and you'll see Box Hill & Westhumble train station, and the finish of the stage, to your left.(E)
