Aside from “Summer Lightning” and the trails near “Deliverance” are there any other parts of Leith Hill that are definitely worth checking out? Hope to be riding there tomorrow and as there’s a Duathlon on Holmbury Hill I fancy trying to get to know Leith Hill a bit better.

Failing that what about Winterfold? Never really venture over there and when we make the journey up there we tend to concentrate on Holmbury/Pitch.

Cheers

Good luck getting answers. Seems to be permanent imbargo on mapping the trails ln here hills. Best trick would be to ask Pedal and Spoke in Peaslake.

Loads on both, I’d sooner do Winterfold than Leith. Leith has dozens of little hidden bits of trail that can be sort of linked up. Winterfold has more ‘proper’ trails, but unless you know where to look you could miss all of it.

Yeah know what you’re talking about. Was looking for a rough idea of a direction to head in, happy to look for stuff to find but it’s a big area 🙂

Yes, loads. Go to “the top” and look N. Then imagine a clockface and explore anywhere between 10:00 and 14:00. You won’t be bored. Hope that is cryptic enough for the “don’t tell anyone else brigade”! Most people know the stuff 11:30 to 13:30 but i like the more hidden stuff earlier on the clock face!

Agree with njee, a lot of Winterfold is easier to miss without someone else. But I prefer it to Leith. But if you already know Leith then probably fun to go and explore the area I mentioned.

Good luck getting answers. Seems to be permanent imbargo on mapping the trails ln here hills.

1. The trails are getting mashed from overuse/riding after wet weather. So the ‘omerta’ is is part to help keep the trails rideable
2. The hard-to-find trails are often illegal and it’s winding up the landower something chronic and giving them an excuse to stop riding there at all…
3. If you know the area you know it’s virtually impossible to describe where trails are – there are three hills covered in woodland – where’s your easy reference points?
4. Just get out and ride the area like everyone else – that’s how the area’s developed. It’s not a trail centre. And there’s a lot of fun to be had discovering great trails you didn’t know were there before… <mountain biking is an adventure sport, not convenience shopping!>

It’s been very wet this week, I’d save it for another time and head over to the new Swinley Forest trails, it’s not got the same elevation but they make great use of what there is and the trail is pretty weather proof (in most places). I was there Wed night, got a right soaking, not helped by my rear tyre exploding in the middle of the forest, an eery walk back to Camberley.

Pitch batter than Leith. Park at Peaslake and follow the masses.

Thanks for the replies. I’d love to check Swinley out but one of my mates is competing in the Duathlon so we said we’d come along and give him a bit of support, and then go for a ride afterwards.

Have to say whenever I’ve been at the Tower on Leith Hill I always think there must be some good riding north of it. Happy to check out the area and see what we find. Just hope I don’t go through a set of pads tomorrow if it’s too wet.

wet as an otters up there at the moment…

Seems to be permanent imbargo on mapping the trails ln here hills.

In the the pre-Strava days maybe but the Surrey Hills seem to be the most intensively Strava’ed area I’ve ever come across for off-road trials.

Go to Strava, Click explore, filter out up-hill segements to get rid of the silly leg-shaver stuff and look at trails appear before your eyes.

(Export as .gpx’s and add to your GPS/phone to make it even easier to find them)

Shame it was getting nice and dry a couple of weeks ago!

Then imagine a clockface and explore anywhere between 10:00 and 14:00. You won’t be bored. Hope that is cryptic enough for the “don’t tell anyone else brigade”! Most people know the stuff 11:30 to 13:30 but i like the more hidden stuff earlier on the clock face!

Who uses the 24 hour clock when referring to a clock face 😕

Stand at the Tower looking at London through the clearing. Go ride the big forest area on your left, between the Tower and Broadmoor/Friday Street.

Dive in to the laurels and forest when you see little ‘deer trails’. Just take pot luck. You can do loops for hours without repeating yourself, the forest is very dense so there is a lot in a small area.

Please remember this is a shared use area and there could be children/dogs/walkers about, it’s not a “trail centre”, I think we’re pretty lucky to have it.

Leith Hill is my favourite actually, because it’s a bit ad hoc and ‘natural’, but Pitch/Winterfold is where to go if you want ‘proper’ trail riding.

ps it’s wet. It’s always ***wet. If you wait for the mythical dry trails day to synchronise with your visit you’ll be tottering around on your Zimmer frame. Just go ride and get wet.

*** except for last weekend, which was dry! But it rained hard on Wednesday night, on Thursday and we have had deluges and hailstorms today.

if you head south then you can ride the Mythical
Princess Diana’s seatbelt. 😯

Don’t get sucked into the valley it’s tempting and means you lose elevation very fast! keep left! 🙂

Out of curiosity, are there any descents in the area that are good for high speeds, without the risk of coming across a load of people out for a quiet walk? Can’t say I’ve ever really found any and if it’s safe to do so I quite like going fast.

The bridleway from High Ashes Farm is about the only one I can think of where you can pick up some speed but that has to be done with some caution. Does get quite busy.

There’s a nice downhill st into dukes warren, it traverses snake hill, there a jump half way down.

Mate,

I have an outstanding 4+ hour route that takes in Leith hill and essentially circumnavigates Dorking – it packs in some really good single track and surprisingly cheeky (I mean challenging, not footpaths) downhill sections. I’ll attempt to map it up for ya if you really fancy giving it a bash; loads of choice to cut it down if you’re short on time.

🙂

LT that’d be very helpful. Don’t often get the chance to ride around Leith Hill and although I don’t mind getting a bit lost here and there, any local knowledge is good to have.

We used to get the train up to Dorking and then ride out from there around Westcott, Shere etc and then do a huge loop around Pitch, Holmbury & Leith. It used to end up with a balls out descent down the rookery bridleway which can be fun.

Whatever you do, I’d pop over to watch a bit of the duathlon on Holmbury anyway – Triathletes on borrowed MTB’s can be quite entertaining 😯

How are they managing that? Surely you can compete on rights of way?

We went on Thursday, ended up coming back on the road, felt like we were killing the trails. It’s so good when it’s dry but not in the wet.

Did this;

How are they managing that? Surely you can’t compete on rights of way?

FTFM

I haven’t got round (or fancy) to using strava??

It’ll be and OS map sheet No then a string of grid refs with brief description. Prob get to it sometime tomorrow if that’s any good to you?

We went on Thursday, ended up coming back on the road, felt like we were killing the trails. It’s so good when it’s dry but not in the wet.

Lol I just managed to place that photo I think. A local would never try and get through there, if I have it right, go through the trees to photog’s left.

I’m pretty local, tbh, 5 inches to the left was fine. It was funny though..

In a dip, east side of the top of the hill by a mile or so, steep climbs both sides one up to Wolverns Lane the other up to the area that has Redlands the opposite side of the road (Coldharbour Lane) am I right?

I think I’ve OTB’d there myself to be honest.

I’d rather ride Winterfold, there is a higher concentration of trails that are better (if you know where to look).