Greyhound approved walks in and around Surrey
Woking Palace is a former manor house of the Royal Manor of Woking that has Scheduled Ancient Monument classification. King Henry VIII visited Woking Manor often as a boy and during his reign - as did Queen Elizabeth I after him. He also honeymooned (!) there with Catherine Parr in 1543. All that remains of the palace are a barrel vault and some adjoining Tudor brick walls but it's kinda cool to be able to walk through a room that Henry VIII has walked through.
Capel is a village in Surrey just north of the border with Sussex and just to the side of the A24, which used to pass through it before the bypass was built. Like so many of these little places in Surrey, it dates back to the Domesday Book. The area around was mainly used for farming but the heavy clay soil also nurtured a thriving brickmaking industry and by the early 19th century there were several brickyards too.
Arbrook Common is part of the Esher group of Commons but has quite different characteristics. While in the winter months it is extremely wet and muddy here, this is a particularly lovely place to visit during the summer, where the woods provide shade and there are plenty of paddling spots.
Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking is one of England’s largest single estate vineyards. The estate is independently owned and run. 265 of its 380 acres are currently under vine and it has a production capacity of 1 million bottles. The first vines were planted on the estate in 1986. In 2024, Denbies was the first UK vineyard to be awarded carbon net zero status, reflecting its ongoing commitment to sustainable and responsible wine production.
I'm not entirely certain the area that this walk goes through is Effingham Forest but that's what searching through OS maps, Googlemaps and on Google has led me to conclude. It's an eerily quiet and isolated place, clearly not somewhere many people go. If you're looking for a walk that's really away from it all, this one could be right up your abandoned pathway.
The second largest of London's royal parks (behind Richmond Park), Bushy Park covers approximately 445 hectares. It was one of Henry VIII's favourite hunting grounds and wild herds of red and fallow deer still roam. The park features the Longford River canal, the Diana Fountain, Chestnut Avenue and many ponds.
The recorded history of Epsom Common, Surrey's largest local nature reserve, goes back to Saxon times, when England was a feudal agricultural society and local people grazed animals on the land. Over the last century, the landscape has changed dramatically due to changing lifestyles and it's now predominantly woodland.
Richmond Park is the largest of London's eight royal parks. Covering 2,500 acres, it's also the capital's largest Site of Special Scientific Interest and a designated nature reserve that boasts ancient woods, rolling hills and open grasslands.
Horsell Common boasts a wide array of landscapes, including heathland, woodland and meadows. Heather Farm comprises the Mimbridge and Bourne meadows area and a (dog-free) wetlands. It has a large car park and there is a cafe serving food and drinks.
Known as “London’s lost route to the sea”, the Wey and Arun Canal is a partially open, 18.5 mile (30km) canal running southwards from the River Wey at Shalford in Surrey to the River Arun at Pallingham in West Sussex. This walk takes you west from the canal centre by the Onslow Arms in Loxwood, through the countryside and back along the canal.
Walks with Rena 