Exploring Pirbright Walk

This walk is funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund,
 

Distance:  4 miles (flat 2 hour walk)

Start:  Pirbright Green free car park
Postcode: GU24 0JE
End: Pirbright Green free car park
Postcode: GU24 0JE

Click for a PDF of the route

Enjoy an easy, flat 2 hour walk around this heathland area – now one of the rarest habitats in the world and home to at risk species such as Dartford Warblers and Sand Lizards. The route skirts around the edge of the Pirbright Military training ground, home to a large herd of Red Deer. It is a good walk for the winter months as the area is sandy.

1. From the car park, cross over the road towards the Cricket Ground and turn left. At the next corner, turn right into ‘The Gardens’ and keep the Cricket Pavillion on your right.  Follow the road to the end and continue ahead on the track, but then turn almost immediately left and go through a metal gate into Brookwood Military Cemetery.  
2. Keep left heading towards ‘Canada House’ building straight ahead.
3. Turn left at ‘Canada House’ and go through the main gates, then turn right onto woodland path, keeping ‘Canada House’ and cemetery on your right. Almost immediately, go through a kissing gate.
4. Continue ahead and when the path splits take the left path (not the right path through a metal kissing gate. (NOTE: What3 Words///enjoy.reds.decks)  Almost immediately take the right fork, following the railway line.
5. Go through kissing gate and turn right following the edge of the road towards the underpass tunnel for the railway line. On the other side of the tunnel, cross over the road and bear left towards the Deepcut Flight of Locks and Pirbright bridge. 
6. Cross the road again here to use the pavement. Go over the bridge and then immediately turn right along the towpath.When the towpath merges with a wide access track, turn left along the track – Sheets Heath Lane.( Note: ///varieties.salad.lower)
7. Continue along this track until you come to a crossing of tracks with a Y-junction on the right. Turn left on a narrow unmarked path. (NOTE: ///punchy.nest.weedy). At the next junction continue ahead towards a double horse gate. Go through the gates and continue ahead until you merge with a larger path, then almost immediately take the path at 45 degrees to the right, near a passing bay and dog litter bin.  NOTE: ///voice.locker.clown)
8. Continue ahead and cross over a wide path until you come to another double horse gate. Turn left before the gate and continue ahead until you reach another double horse gate. 
9. Go through these gates. (Ahead of you is an interpretation board about Pirbright’s Military history.)  Almost immediately after the gate turn left, cross over an access track, near a cattle grid, and continue ahead following the boundary of the Military Training Grounds. (NOTE: ///pinks.taxi.trade)
10. As you spy a road coming up ahead, take the smaller path to the right (to avoid a very marshy area) and continue ahead to the road
11. Turn left onto the pavement beside the road. Cross over Pirbright Bridge once again, but this time cross over the road and take the right turn along the canal. After 100 metres is a brick structure that used to be a bridge over the canal for the Bisley branch line (closed in the Beeching cuts in the 1960s) . (Note the interpretation board here.)  Pass by Lock 16 and continue on until you reach Cowshot Bridge.
12. Turn left by the bridge onto a path under the railway line and come out by a road B3012 ( NOTE:///curving.limes.dangerously)
13. Cross straight over and continue on the tarmac path as it carries on across a little common bearing right, down to ‘Wood House’ and ‘Stone Cottage’.  Beside the entrance to the cottages the marked footpath turns left running along the boundary of the cottages. Keep the fence on your left.
14. At the junction of the next road (Vapery Lane) turn left and follow the road. You pass by a set of model Victorian cottages once owned by the local manor.
15. As the road turns sharp left, continue straight ahead on a short path and out to a road. Cross over the road and continue straight ahead. The path merges with a track by some houses and passes one on your left with ‘West Heath Cottages 1880’ in large lettering on the upper front. 
16. When you reach Thompson’s Close continue straight ahead on the tarmac road.(West Heath)
17. At the T-junction with a road, turn left. As the road bends left stay on the road (do not take the footpath). At ‘Apple Tree Cottage’ take the path up the slope by the side of the cottage and through the wooden gate. Follow the edge of the field keeping the hedge line on your left, until you reach a wooden kissing gate. Go through the gate which takes you back out onto the road. Continue ahead.
18. As the road bends right take the little path on your left across the stream.
19. Then turn right into the church yard through the wooden entrance gates with yew trees either side. Continue around the church following the main path through the church yard. Just before you reach the end of the church yard there is a large grave stone commemorating Henry Morton Stanley GCB - who was commissioned to go and find Dr Livingstone in Africa in the 1860s and is most famously known for the quote ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume’.
20. Continue out through a gate onto the road and turn left around to the Green, back at Pirbright village.
21. Cross the road at Pirbright Village Hall and follow the path past the playground and passing a pond on your right. The Cricketers Pub is ahead and there is also a yurt café around the back of the pub. Alternatively, you could try The White Hart pub, also on the Green.  The path on your left takes you back to the car park where the walk started.

Pirbright- Local Facts:

• Pirbright is a pretty village on the border with Woking borough and is set amongst a vast heathland area, much of which is used by the MOD for training and is off limits to the public. It is also home to Brookwood Military Cemetery including the American Cemetery which is well worth a visit and is open to the public all year round. 
• Pirbright’s name comes from Anglo-Saxon (Old English) Pirige-fyrhþ meaning "sparse woodland where pear trees grow".
• The village's medieval church is Grade II Listed and includes a large Boulder grave for Victorian explorer Henry Morton Stanley. The nearby section of Hodge Brook is also known as the Congo Stream, between Ruwenzori Hills and Stanley Pool. 
• Henry Morton Stanley was the founder of the Congo Free State, and was also famous for finding Dr Livingstone at Lake Tanganyika in 1871. He later became an MP and lived at Furzehill Place in Stanley Hill, in Pirbright, where his carved initials can be seen above the gate. His grave in St Michael’s churchyard is marked by a monolith inscribed ‘Bula Mutari’, meaning ‘stone breaker’. The Congolese gave him the name in recognition of his ability to find solutions to apparently insoluble problems.
• Pirbright formed part of the Royal Hunting Forest of Windsor and remained a isolated agricultural community for many centuries. The Manor House and Mill date from the 13th century. The present house is 16th century and was part of Catherine of Aragon’s dowry when she married Henry VIII.
• The Basingstoke Canal opened in 1794, which divided the parish into two separate areas connected by bridges. The railway was built along the same route in 1839. The Army purchased large areas of scrubland in the 1870s. Camps on the north side of the railway were canvas tents but barracks and houses for soldiers’ families were later built and the population grew considerably during the Victorian period.