Mayfield - Batt's Wood - Wadhurst Deer-Park - Mayfield

Alison and Clive Gilbert

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This walk was originally compiled by Alan and Janet Love, sadly both are no longer with us. Alison Gilbert has kindly offered to take them over. Alison and Walkingworld would like all these excellent walks to remain as a continuing tribute to Alan and Janet.

A short distance from the free car park at the end of a narrow lane, you are out into the lovely East Sussex countryside on this very varied walk from the picturesque village of Mayfield, with its beautiful old buildings, church, various shops and tea room. The walk, apart from a stretch of road-walking at the beginning, follows public bridleways and footpaths all the way, goes through some delightful stretches of woodland on bridleways and crosses Wadhurst Deer-Park, before going through farmland and a private drive on the way back to Mayfield. If it is peace and quiet you are after, you cannot go far wrong on this walk; the only sound you may hear, apart from birdsong, in the correct season are the deer rutting.

England - South England - East Sussex - Countryside

Features

Birds, Butterflies, Cafe, Church, Flowers, Food Shop, Gift Shop, Great Views, Play Area, Pub, Public Transport, Tea Shop, Toilets, Wildlife, Woodland

8/19/2022 - Ellen Pirie

We did this walk on Tuesday 16th Aug 2022, just after the first rain after the long dry spell. Our walk was mostly dry but lovely to walk in the damp air after such a hot spell. The walk was great, a few changes to stiles, some missing, some new. We cut the walk short by heading north at waypoint 8 and then rejoining at 25. This makes the walk about 5 miles. You can see how to do this quite easily on the map. There is a nice spot for lunch just south of 25 next to a bend in the stream - which still had a bit of water! No mud for us anywhere but you could see places where it was obviously muddy in the winter.

4/18/2017 - Rachel Frost

We did this walk in the first week of April and from the moment you park up in the car park you know you are in for a great hike ! There are great views even from this car park! NOTE: the car park postcode is TN20 6DD not TN20 6BB as mentioned in the instructions. We had a picnic lunch at Point 19 after the swing gate into Wadhurst Park. Here you can make a slight detour to the right down to the lakes edge and sit under the shade of a tree watching the geese and wagtails. We got a bit lost at Point 28 but this is from us not reading the instructions correctly. Its tempting to turn right onto the grassy drive immediately to the right of Mousehall Mill but ignore this and carry on walking on the road through the hamlet of Mousehall. We also couldn't find the iron railings mentioned in Point 35 so there was no deviation to the left. We carried on straight over a couple of fields and eventually the path leads downwards to a style and the concrete bridge mentioned in Point 37. We stopped at the Middle House Hotel at the end of the walk and I can highly recommend the roast ! A great day walking !

9/14/2015 - Kevin Hilton

Many thanks to Alan for this exceptionally beautiful walk. We did it on a glorious September day and enjoyed every second, although it's more taxing than 8 miles might suggest. The scenery throughout the walk is wonderful and constantly changing. Apart from becoming slightly disorientated around points 30/31 (probably our fault), the directions were faultless. Highly recommended.

6/27/2012 - Judy Brua

Very pleasant walk, particularly enjoyed the large herd of deer with a big stag in the Deer Park. Waymark 35/35 - this meadow is now fenced so that you have to go through a gate before getting into the meadow. We didn't see any iron railings, but in retrospect there is a stile into the woods which is probably the deviation mentioned - we didn't take it but you come out at the same place.