As we enter November, we finally returned to the High Weald for the first time in several weeks, this time heading to its southern end, the town of Battle. We also sent off much later than we have been recently, leaving the train station car park at twenty to twelve. This was sort of by design however, as this is by far one of our shortest routes so wouldn’t take long and the plan was to get back and head up to Battle Abbey for lunch.
We made our way up the main road and turned left down one of the side roads, as directed on the map. On our last go-round, we had got to the end of the cul-de-sac to find that the footpath beyond was closed for developments. They must be working very slowly unfortunately, as we found that this was still the case a couple of years later, and so turned around and retraced our steps. Thankfully it wasn’t too much further up the road before we were able to pick the trail back up, and dart left down into the awaiting woodland.
We had intentionally saved this tree-based walk for this time of year, hoping to see all the colours of autumn as we went. However, what first greeted us was a footpath consisting of sloppy mud, a factor I had failed to consider, having last done this walk on a summer’s day. This continued on for some time and made the going rather slow and tricky, and we hoped very much that this would not be the case all the way around. Fortunately, it was not, and once we turned left and picked up a slightly more established path, conditions did begin to improve.
As the surface beneath our feet grew firmer, we could settle in and begin to enjoy the colours which we had come to see. And this really does sum up the majority of the remaining walk; mostly decent paths which were easy to follow, and plenty of autumnal leaves decorating the accompanying trees.
We picked up the large 1066 ride going through the middle of the woods, which took us back out to the road and into Battle, returning to the car about a couple hours after we left it. By now we were very much ready for some food. We headed up to Battle Abbey for lunch (with a volunteer discount; booyah!) and after filling our tummy’s we wandered around the remains of the old abbey which sits on the site of the Battle of Hastings, during which time Beth very much got her nerd on.
This is a short and easy walk, as long as you get the right conditions. As such, I would recommend saving it for summer, despite all the colours on show. It is also well worth pairing the route with a visit to the abbey and a wander around Battle too.
Full instructions available at https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/media/c3tpsq12/battle-walk.pdf
Matthew G. Huggins 